WAO: The Settling
by Commissar Danno
Summary: After the bloody first month of the players being trapped in Warhammer Apocalypse of Old new lives and professions are being made. But still war is ever present and will present it self in ever more bloody ways. Sequel to WAO Entering the Old World
1. War in the Mountains: New Years

**A/N: I do not own Warhammer Fantasy, 40k or Sword Art Online, they belong to their respective owners. To my dear readers look up MineworksAimations on youtube for the source of Drestovs song. Well folks here is the first chapter in the new story featuring the dwarfs and greenskins! Enjoy. But please review, review a lot it keeps me interested in the story and that means I'll get more updates out quicker. **

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_Zhufbar  
The Early Hours of January 1st, 2023_

The Dwarfen city of Zhufbar, despite it being by all appearances a doughty city full of grim faced dwarfs and water powered machinery, was alive with revelers. A few days ago there was some celebrations when Christmas came, but those few parties were down played because of the lacked of loved ones or even good friends so shortly after the players had been locked in WAO. New Years Eve on the other hand was a hell of a time to be in city.

In addition to their being hope brought about by the new year, which did lift the spirits of the trapped players, there was the fact that the game developers also apparently liked to party and all the alcoholic beverages in the city had their prices slashed in half in the NPC run taverns. The latter effect had turned the players from somewhat unhappy individuals into raging, bearded, party animals. There was mass drinking parties with scores if not hundreds of players crowding around the many pubs that lined the city.

The fact that there was no risk to the player's bodies or long terms effects of drinking the excellent ales, lagers and beers combined with an actual reason to celebrate was just adding more fuel to the fire. There was games developed on the spot for longest toss by the beard, a game where players took a shot of vodka when another player or NPC long beard recited a grudge and disturbingly enough strip axe throwing, the details of which left better to the imagination. There were fights but no actual duels and they were general resolved by the harassment menu which sent the offending party to jail for the night. The tone in the city was a happy one under the twin moons.

Two of the revelers were enjoying themselves in a quieter part of the city in a small pub. Roshi Petal and Desiree were occupying a table in a dark corner of the pub nursing a pair of troll brew filled tankards, while some of their guildmates and a few others occupied themselves with getting plastered. At the bar Klein, a knight-initiate in service to Fredrik Weiss, was attempting to sing a drunken version of Auld Lang Sigh along with a couple of dwarfs. He was here on leave from Bachenbog Fortress, which was situated of the border of dwarf territory and Slyvania. The Silver Seekers and Weiss's Averland refugees, now having changed their faction to Stirlanders to avoid some potential conflicts in the future, cleared out the fortress two weeks ago and had just finished renovations on it. It was part of a deal that both Thordek and Weiss had come up with, in exchange for giving the former Averlanders a home they were pledged to protect the border from PLA, undead and if the dwarfs called on it to war to fight alongside them.

In addition to Weiss's guild, which had grown to over thirty members over the past few months whose members were fellow refugees of Averland, the Silver Seekers had grown larger as well. The current size for the guild was at almost five hundred players and with over a third of the city in their ranks they had become the most dominate political force in the starter city. Other citizens had branched off to found their own specialty guilds or parties.

Besides the revelers was a dwarf sitting in a darken corner, he had a large pile of empty tankards in front of him on a table. He was bear chested and wore only a pair of ragged striped trousers, his hair was dyed bright orange and done up in a Mohawk. He was a slayer, one of the few dwarfen players who couldn't live with being stuck in this world. Some had taken their lives the usual way of jumping to death or by monster while others had taken it upon themselves to become slayers and go out epically by going up against the largest mobs and bosses they could find, after almost two months there were hardly any slayers remaining and the least successful could be counted at just above twenty.

Roshi and Desiree paid little attention to the unfortunate slayer and instead talked to themselves about the business of the day." So she's one of the better black smiths?" Roshi asked her friend, before taking a sip of the expensive beer.

Desiree nodded and replied." Yes, she's as good at smiting as I am with engraving runes. Well as good as the smithy grapevine goes."

As the Silver Seekers expanded in size the roles the two girls had expanded beyond commanders of small strike teams. Roshi had found that she enjoyed the role of a tank in addition to her command of the company of dwarfs under her command. She had become a full fledge thane just the week before when she broke through the level requirement. Now that she was level 16 she had a small force of 16 bots under her direct control and 40 guildmates with a combined total of around 500 heavily armored bots. Roshi had also been able to buy a full steel plate armor set along with a steel shield and a gromil axe, engraved by Desiree. As Roshi gained ranks on the front lines Desiree had gone down a different route, that of a Rune Smith who specialized in engraving and giving passive ability's to equipment. She was in charge of a small group of rune smiths, who were adapt at dispelling mob spells. She had shed her heavier armor as well and adopted a dress of heavy leather marked with runes of stone and magic wards. Though as good as she was with engraving she was not so well suited to the effort of black smiting, though she was grinding her skills in that area slowly.

Roshi then pointed to her golden circlet that crowned her black hair." Do you really think she can make more of these?" The 'Acolyte of Valaya's Golden Band' was a boss drop she had received a month ago. With Desiree's skill the golden circlet had been upgraded enough to grant Roshi a twelve HP recovery per second bonus along with an armor and magic resistance bonus's.

"It's worth a try Sugercube, after all if we were able to make more those golden bands will save lives." Desiree said. So far Roshi had was the only known drop for the item which had proven its worth in the field at keeping Roshi going while her HP had been knocked down to almost zero. If the item was able to be mass produced then more lives wouldn't be lost to the hell that was WAO. Desiree then added" She should be here soon…."

Then the door opened to the pub and both girls turned their head to the newcomer. The new comer was shorter than an average male dwarf and her form was slimmer as well, that of a female. They could see that the dwarf was a female dressed in heavy furs and covering a red and white dress. Her face was slightly rounded, her hair was died pink and a pair of reddish eyes found Roshi's and Desiree's own. She smiled lightly and walked pass the bar without a second glance to the red haired knight.

As she neared the table the table she said." You must be Desiree and Rin."

Desiree nodded and said." Howdy Lizbeth. Take a seat." Desiree tapped a stone chair next to her at the table.

Lizbeth took the seat as Desiree went up to the bar to get a tankard for Lizbeth. Roshi asked the young smith." So how was the journey from Everpeak?"

" It was cold and mostly boring." Lizbeth answered rubbing her palms together for warmth as she spoke casually." Besides the mobs our caravan fought along the way the only other time I felt… threaten was when we had to deal with a greenskin toll fort. Seriously I felt like if looked at someone the wrong way an orc boy would use his choppa on me."

Roshi sighed and leaned back." It's because were having some disputes about who gets what mountain." She then took a swig of her brew as Desiree arrived with a full tankard of brew for Lizbeth.

Lizbeth took the tankard and thanked Desiree." Oh I see, gold or silver mine dispute?" Lizbeth asked."

"Gold and silver are easy enough to come by, what us players are having an argument about is Gromil." Roshi answered." The mountains by Karak Varn… Cragmere, the place you passed by to get here, are claimed by the greenskins. But because Zhufbar has been expanding we need weapons to sell to the Empire. But to get an edge over the human- bloody hell there I go again, I mean Empire smiths is to get Gromil to make better weapons than they ever could. Steels good and all." She hit her breast plate with a loud metallic thud." But Gromil can stop a 1 pound cannon ball. So were now trying to negotiate a deal with the greenskins to mine in the old dwarven mines."

Lizbeth nodded in understanding and took a few gulps of her drink." Well it sounds like you northerners have your hands full. Why are you having trouble with the greenskins? I mean it sounds like you two should have a deal going by now."

Desiree smiled sheepishly." Well darlin' it's because back a month ago one of our former guildmates killed a messenger from Cragmere and we had a skirmish with another party a week later."

Lizbeth looked at her with some disbelief." How did that happen? I mean both of them?"

Desiree said to her fellow smith." Well when the messenger was killed our guild was on a raid. After we cleared out the fort an idiot dwarf decided to step into a cave and arggo'ed a boss. Afterwards he tried to tried to pass it off as a goblin player who was hiding in the cave and then killed him. Our guild master knew he was lying and kicked him out right on the stop. The skirmish happened 4 days later when one of our patrols mistook the orcs as a wondering mob patrol… luckily no one was killed then but since we've just barely been keeping the peace. It's a miracle the Zhufbar city council though made a breakthrough and now there's a survey crew in greenie land under their protection."

'And then theres the fact that the Silver Seekers conquered Skarklaz Ungor so we have a fortress closer to their lands now.' Roshi added to herself but kept silent about Grenza Hold.

Lizbeth then decided to change the subject to something that wasn't fast becoming akward." I can't wait to find out more. But can I see the circlet I've been hearing so much about?"

Roshi grinned and took the golden band off her crown." Here you go." Lizbeth took the circlet and started to examine it and checking its stats and its construction.

After a few moments she looked up and said." My skill level is at level 400 for smiting and I should be able to make a golden band just like this. But my rune smithing skill is at 50 so I can't enchant this, it requires someone who is level 300 or more…."

Desiree smirked." I'm at level 350 for Rune Smiting. I'm sure if we work together then we can make more of these acolyte circlets."

Lizbeth thought to herself.' That is possible, she takes over the process at the right moment… but it's risky and the resources needed are not easy or cheap to come by. Wait why did I come all the way out here to say no to these two?' She smiled and said aloud." I'll do it, but my skills don't come easy and I'm not looking to join a guild either."

Desiree smiled." Of course we can work out how much its going to cost tomorrow and you can use our guilds forge."

Roshi lifted up her tankard." So we agreed?"

Lizbeth lifted up her tankard." We're agreed."

Desiree lifted her Tankard and clinked it against the other two girls." Bottoms up."

" Cheers."

"Kampei!"

The girls then downed their beers and slammed their tankards down onto the table.

/

_The Lost Mine of Khazid Aldum  
Early Hours of January 1st_

The lost mine of Khazid Aldum was no longer lost, in fact it was quite active with players. There were 25 of them in total, 10 stout dwarven miners from Zhufbar, 14 burly orcs from Cragemere who towered over their bearded compatriots and 1 little goblin. Greenskin players had discovered the abandoned mine two weeks earlier and found that their skills at extracting the precious ores were not nearly as good as the dwarven race. The Orcs and Goblins could easily mine and do the forging, but if only if they had players who were above the skill level above 600 for mining and smelting. The dwarfs could get the same skills the Orcs had needed at around skill level 150.

This helped convince the various Orc and Goblin guilds that they needed to work with the dwarfs in the north despite how disrespectful they were towards the greenskins. Back in the fortress of Cragmere and the city of Zhufbar diplomats were discussing trade, taxes and further expeditions, besides partying like mad men at the moment. The prospect of money had greased the wheels of diplomacy.

The party wasn't limited to the cities either, at the entrance of the mine the dwarf players had tapped their kegs and were sharing with their greenskin comrades. The green skins were thankful since the pinnacle of greenskin brewing was rotgut or the trippy goblin brews. The party were gathered at the entrance around a fire and were mostly getting blasted as they talked about stories from the Old World and the Real. There were jokes going back and forth between the players from the players appearance to ones picked up by the NPCs.

Carval, a typical orc player with dark green skin and cosmetic scars across his body and face, made a joke that was able to be heard without any slurring since he haddn't been drinking as much as his fellow players." Al'right I got one. A dwarf, an orc and an elf walk into a bar. There is three barrels of their fav' drinks behind the bar and they make a bet about the last one standing gets fifty gold, but they have to drink the other two beers and not their own. The Elf player went first and poured a wine glass of dwarven ale, he's already tipsy from it now. The dwarf is next and he takes a full tankard of elven wine and he complains its to light. Both of them try the orc rotgut and they nearly spit it out. The orc on the otha' hand downed both barrels of wine and ale and was already drunk. It looks like the dwarf is about to win now eh? Well that's were you is wong, the orc bashes both barrels on da elf and stunties 'ead and they were knocked out and he won the bet."

There were laughs from the still conscious players as they heard the joke. Besides the alcohol making them more receptive to comedy and anger they were also merry from the past two days of mining success from Khazid Aldum. After eliminating mobs and a few mini bosses the dwarf players were able to get enough Gromil to make scores of weapons.

"How about a song! Drestov sing us one!" One of the dwarfen players called out to his halfway sober friend.

Drestov stood up." Sure sure. Right… I got an old one for you mine craft fans." He then started to clear his throat before he sung a song to the tune of the oldie 'Counting Stars'.

"Lately, I've been, I've been mining stone  
Looking for some coal to smelt these ores  
But baby, I've been, I've been searching hard  
Said I won't mine cobblestone  
We'll be mining ores, yeah we'll be smelting ores"

Drestov then started to clap his hands to the beat.

"I see zombies everywhere I mine  
I won't die with swords, I'm fine  
Swinging picks in one straight line  
Ores are what I need to find  
Oh, but I'm getting old  
Stone, the one thing I hold  
I don't think the mine is sold  
I'm just trying to stay bold"

"Holding my sword I'll fight  
Using the wrong pick  
I did something so wrong  
Using the right pick"

"I wouldn't die, wouldn't die, wouldn't die  
Everything that hurts me makes me lose my life"

The other dwarves started to stomp on their feet and slap their hands.

"Lately, I've been, I've been mining stone  
Looking for iron to craft better swords  
But baby, I've been, I've been searching hard  
Said I won't mine cobblestone  
We'll be mining ores"

"Lately, I've been, I've been mining stone  
Looking for iron to craft better swords  
But baby, i've been, i've been searching hard  
Said I won't mine cobblestone"

"We'll be, We'll be mining ores"

The orc players then joined in the song as well.

"I see lava and I feel the burn  
Down this ravine, never learn  
Mine is a four-letter word  
I'll do that now, every turn  
Oh, but I'm getting old  
Stone, the one thing I hold  
I don't think the mine is sold  
I'm just trying to stay bold  
I don't yet want to fight  
Using the right pick  
I wouldn't die, wouldn't die, wouldn't die  
Everything that I find helps me to survive"

"Lately, i've been, i've been mining coal  
Making armour to survive the cruel world  
But baby, i've been, i've been fighting hard  
Said I won't mine cobblestone  
We'll be mining ores"

"Lately, i've been, i've been mining coal  
Making armour to survive the cruel world  
But baby, I've been, I've been fighting hard  
Said I won't mine cobblestone

"We'll be, we'll be mining ores"

The players then started to sing drunkenly at first but getting better as the song continued. Save for the goblin who was typing into her menu.

"Take that diamond  
Make it last  
Into the ravine  
Go and mine it fast"

"Take that diamond  
Make it last  
Into the ravine  
Go and mine it fast"

"Take that diamond Make it last  
Into the ravine"

"Go and mine it fast"

"Take that diamond  
Make it last  
Into the ravine  
Go and mine it fast"

"Everything that hurts me... makes me lose my life"

"Lately, I've been, I've been mining gold  
Crafting wooden bows to shoot arrows  
But baby, i've been, i've been mining hard  
Said I won't mine cobblestone  
We'll be mining ores"

"Lately, I've been, I've been mining gold  
Crafting wooden bows to shoot arrows  
But baby, I've been, I've been mining  
Said I won't mine cobblestone  
We'll be, we'll be mining ores"

The players were mostly in sync with each other now that they neared the end of the song.

"Take that diamond  
Make it last  
Into the ravine  
Go and mine it fast"

"Take that diamond  
Make it last  
Into the ravine  
Go and mine it fast"

"Take that diamond  
Make it last  
Into the ravine  
Go and mine it fast"

"Take that diamond  
Make it last  
Into the ravine  
Go and mine it fast"

When the song ended the players laughed and slapped each other's back. After the main part of the celebrations had died down the goblin crackled with her high pitched laugh, technically she was a boy now but in the real world she was a girl by the name of Ashely." That was good but not my favorite song."

Drestov chuckled." What is it then? I can sing it for you if I know it?"

Ashely smirked, her lips reveiling pointed goblin teeth." Your screams of death." Drestov looked at her with a raised eyebrow, but before he could respond to her awkward answer she tapped a button on her menu and she ran off. As Drestov opened his mouth to ask what she was doing an arrow storm came down from the mountainside and started to hit the players. Drestov's throat was punched through by an arrow and felt blood filing up his lungs. The arrows landed amongst the greenskins as well and hit them.

But what really started to kill the players were the unprecidented arrival of 5 orc players who started to kill the players with their axes. One hit Drestov with the broadside of his axe before he could see the friendly greenskins get killed. Drestov was knocked over the edge of the mountain and rolled down its side.

The players were not defenless though, they still outnumbered the new greenskins and the still concious ones had their weapons. But they were not of their right minds nor did they know who were their real enemies and there was a mass melee amongst the players with the dwarfs fighting both sides of greenskins and one side of green skins fighting each other all the while arrows were raining in from the shadows. The fighting was bloody amongst the flames, bodies were split open as players died or pin cushioned by the arrows.

Heads rolled, limbs were chopped off and internal organs crushed as players died in glittering light. As soon as the ambush had come it ended when the last friendly orc was beheaded by the last ambusher. He was armored in heavy, if not rough armor, and panted as he rested.

After a moment to catch his breath he roared out." Juro, where are you son of a bitch I want my payment!" He breathed heavily as he awaited his answer. He got it when he felt the dagger enter under his right arm pit. He then grunted and tried to punch at the dagger man but missed. Ashely then leaped to his left side and stab under his other arm. His health started to drop from the poisoned blade.

"Sneaky Git! I'll fuck you up when I get my hands on you!" He turned and faced her. She then jumped backwards and activated her menu, causing another storm of arrows to hit and reduce the orc players health even more. Juro then jumped at him and used her dagger to slice open the players neck. The players face was that of surprise and shock. He gripped at his throat to stop his blood from flowing as his HP dropped to zero.

The orc player then died in a shower of sparkles.

Ashely smiled to her self at the death and destruction she had brought. When she had the opportunity to join the expedition, due to her previous 'experiences' with dwarfs she was estactic. At last she could get some revenge against the murderers of her friend. She had hired the orc mercenaries and had kept her goblins hidden from the main expedition. When the party had began she had decided that now was the perfect time to spring her trap. Though her friends murderer was not among the dead dwarfs, at least more of his people were instead. So what if twenty orcs died to get her revenge? They died for a purpose, her purpose. She then gathered the mercenaries remains and their equipment. She then left the mine heading towards Cragmere, she would tell her superiors that the dwarfs had gotten drunk and an argument had broken out about the ore. Dwarfs were supposed to be greedy hairy bastards anyway so they would listen, they would have to since she was the only one alive to tell her story. If she played her cards right there would be more conflicts and more opportunities to kill dwarfs.

What she didn't see when she left was a single dwarf crawling away at the base of the mountain. Drestov felt the need to survive and tell his boss that the greenskins had betrayed the dwarfs.

The blood of treachery had watered the seeds of war.


	2. War in the Mountains: Battle Lines

**A/N: See first chapter for disclaimer. Be prepared for lazy writing.**

**Reply to Reviewers- **

**coronadomontes: Thanks for reviewing!**

/

_Zhufbar  
Late Morning of January 1st, 2023_

The forges and workshops of Zhufbar were seemingly at full blast this new year's day, with dwarves going to and thro, with mine carts full of iron ore and other precious metals being pulled along by mules and the heat of dozens of forges going all at once. But the truth was that only a quarter of the forges were really occupied by players, the rest by NPCs who went about their daily programed business. Of the forges and workshops they were either owned or rented out by the city, the later having to pay a daily rate to have access to the extensive smithy's while the former paid a large single payment and a once monthly tax to the city. Currently only some of the forges and the workshops were held privately and none were owned individually, while most of the others were owned directly by the guilds that had more resources to draw from.

Today though most of the forges that were occupied by players were not since they were resting off the previous nights party. Eventually they would go into work but till they were resting in the city, some times on the city streets and with a few unfortunate players of strip crossbow without any clothes. There was one forge in operation though and it was owned by the Silver Seekers. The forge was especially large and was a combination of all three types of manufactory's the dwarves had to offer. It had a space for smiting, one corner for a workshop and finally one area for forging.

The area for the workshop was used by engineers to build small devices or mechanical ranged weapons, such as crossbows or better designed handguns. The forge was made to either create cheap weapons on mass or warmachines which were of much better quality than buying from NPC dealers, though there were rumors of quest rewards of siege weapons. Finally there was the smithy which was the middle ground between the two and dealt with hand created weapons like axes, armor and warhammers. Though right now only the smithy and the workshop were being put to use.

Lizbeth and Desiree worked together at the smithy's small forge, Desiree working the bellows while Lizbeth was turning over the golden ring with a pair of tongs. Roshi was heating up a partially formed axe head, it wasn't anything special just some vendor trash for extra income and to give her a second occupation other than fighting. All three girls wore only bras, goggles, sweat stained pants and leather aprons in the forge. Despite it being winter outside the balmy forge could put a desert to shame for its heat.

"Get ready to switch." Lizbeth said to Desiree. The older red head nodded and continued to pump the bellows. As soon as Lizbeth pulled the ring out with her tongs she went over to a by anvil and started to hammer the item with a rhythm, Desiree joined by her side her own hammer ready." Alright… switch!" Lizbeth timed it so that her hammer hit the ring a moment before she spoke. Lizbeth let go of the tongs and Desiree took them. With a single final hammer stroke by Desiree the item was finally created, but because she was the last one to strike it the item was now created by her and because of her rune smiting skill it was able to be engraved by her.

Desiree smirked as she dunk the ring into a barrel of water and said." It worked. That was brilliant work sugercube."

Lizbeth stepped away from the smithy to a nearby table." It was nothing, we just needed to work out the kinks of the switch." As she poured herself a tankard of ice water Lizbeth reflected back on the day's events. How all three of them had been working since they woke up a few hours ago, then forging the first three tries at forging the golden circlet. The problem had been the timing, if Desiree forged the circlet to early then it would change the composition and ruin the work, if Lizbeth had the last blow then the ring would be forged but would not be able to be engraved with the required runes.

" Well you did most of the work, I just finished it off." Desiree said, examining the now cool ring. She was looking at where she would inscribe the future runes to make the circlet into a copy of Roshi's artifact.

Lizbeth drank her water and breathed a sigh of welcomed relief after downing the beverage. She then poured another cup as she spoke." That's right and has your guild master given his reply yet?" The second part of the sentence was directed at Roshi.

Roshi continued to hammer away at the nearly finished axe head as she replied." I'll check my messages as soon as I'm done with forging this axe…." Then after a beat." Of plus+2 kick ass."

That brought a smile to the other girls lips, maybe not a full laugh since the joke was so common among blacksmiths since they were in the game. Lizbeth then pressed the ice cold tankard against her head. As she was enjoying the cool down she heard the sound of a paper being dropped into a basket by the door. When she turned to the open door all she saw was the end of a rat tail going down the hall way and a rolled up newspaper.

Lizbeth set down the tankard and went over to the basket to pick up the paper. She unrolled the paper and spoke aloud." The Daily Argo?"

As Roshi quenched her axe blade, Desiree sat at her work bench and said to Lizbeth." It's a newspaper set up by a Skaven guild, they just got permission to sell subscriptions in the city last week. It has some of the bigger news storys, walkthroughs on quests and some classifieds in it. Its expensive but when the only other news you get is from your friends you can see why it's needed." She then put on a pair of clear brass goggles with magnifying glasses and picked up her tools to start engraving.

Lizbeth 'hmmed' to herself and read the headlines.

The first headline to catch her attention read**." Butchery in Bretonnia!"** The story underneath it then described the acts of violence and depravity which were occurring in the far off land of knights. One which was practically was of a band of knights calling themselves the Dixie Boys who slaughtered three NPC villages, ransacked a castle and then gang raped the women rebels they caught while taking their time flaying the men. All while the Christmas events were going on. It made her stomach churn at the visuals and the engraving on the front page.

The second story was more tame and dealt with the Imperials**." The Future of the Averland."** This had more to do with the politics of the Empire rather than more acts of violence. The article was a piece which examined the state of Averland, which was out right independent of the other four starter states. It portrayed the country as united under its iron fisted ruler Kiabaou, who was forcing his constituents to call him Count, though he did not yes possess the Averland Rune Fang. The article also said that Averland also had the largest single army of the other Imperial States because of its universal enrollment of all players within its domain and of the refugees from last month's brief but effective campaign against the PLA. It also asked the question whether the state was to be trusted since its army would prove invaluable in destroying the Chaos Gate and Marianburg was in open talks about an alliance. Kibaou was also fighting off rumors that he had a harem of concubines and instead had called them his 'willing partners'. Lizbeth shook her head and was thankful she didn't choose to go human when she put on the nervegear.

She also noticed a second page story about elves landing in Nordland and making their way south through the empire.

As Lizbeth read the paper Roshi opened her messages and started to scan though them, reading each one….

Lizbeth scanned through the classifieds and noticed that there was two new colleges opening in the Empire. The first was the Imperial War College in Altdorf and the second called Hochland Forest Community College, with the dean being some guy named Adler. While there was another ad for Agil Norscan Trading and Shipping. Lizbeth shrugged and set the paper back into the basket, she suspected that if she got enough money she would get a subscription.

" I think we should change before the boys get here." Desiree said in between engraving.

Lizbeth turned to her." Eh?"

Desiree then looked at Lizbeth through her goggles, her eyes hugely magnified." We should change into our regular clothes. If the boys get here and see us like this then we'll be hearing 'Hammer and Pail' for the rest of the week."

Lizbeth decided it was best to change after hearing Desiree's reasoning. The song was a raunchy one about a dwarf blacksmith and a milk maid and about his 'hammer' and her 'pail'. As she changed into her regular red dress she thought about how sexist this 'fantasy' world was an-

Roshi then ran over to the pitcher and doused herself in the ice cold water, washing her body quickly. Both Lizbeth and Desiree looked at each other and then at Roshi, the later speaking." You okay Rin?"

"There's an emergency I need to get to now. I need to look half way proper." Roshi then put on her clothes and then armor along with her weapons. She turned to the other dwarfs and said." Finish up with your engraving and I'll message you later."

Roshi ran out of the forge as fast her short legs could move.

/

When Roshi arrived at the Silver Seekers guild hall she could hear the arguments between her fellow dwarfen captains and the greenskin ambassadors. Just five minutes she had read the message in her inbox which was titled." Emergency: War is coming get to the guild hall now." And she took off without reading the full message, though the title was enough to chill her blood. The possibility of being dragged into the conflicts of the empire were low, despite the fact that the Zhufbarians had taken in refugees, the skaven and other dwarf holds had no quarrel with Zhufbar. The only faction to have a real reason for going to war were the greenskins, but she didn't know the exact one yet.

She entered her guilds meeting room and saw Thordek, Dordi and other representatives of Zhufbar having a shouting match with the greenskins, two orcs and two goblins. Roshi kept back and away from getting involved in the argument and instead made her way towards Thordek, circling around the group. As she did so she could clearly make out what the emergency was about.

" –Juro is a trusted goblin. She was part of the first attempt to contact your city and insisted that she should give your people a second chance when she went on this co-expedition. She would never b-" The orc was cut off by Dordi." Betrayed! That's what little greenskin did. Drestov can't even speak because of that arrow in his throat but he bloody well knows who shot it."

Roshi raised and eyebrow, she was expecting talk of betrayal in the case of the emergency call, but of the wound that wouldn't heal? Roshi shook her head and concentrated on the argument.

" That is what his messages are saying but until I see it for myself or hear him talk, I won't believe him or what you say about the matter. Juro messaged us and told us that the dwarfs were the first to kill our people because they wanted to keep all of the gromil. You dwarfs are greedy as the fluff says you are!" The same orc ambassador shouted.

"Enough of this! I will not have a war based on who's word to believe." Thordek said." Someone on the expedition betrayed the other, that is fact and I won't dispute it. But until we know more I do not want us to jump to conclusions."

One of the goblins bristled before saying." Wait? Wait! How many people have we lost because of you dwarf's? When we wait how many more greenskins will die?" His green skin then turn red as he got angrier." You don't want war? Then why the hell are you playing this fucking game? You know what I want war and I'm going to tell my guild masters back in Cragmere that we should go to war with you because guess what we will lose more people unless we destroy you."

The dwarfs and the two remaining greenskins went silent. Roshi was taken back by that statement and could feel the heated argument change from heated to razor cold chill. Thordek glared the goblin in the eyes." We are humans, we may look different than we did back in the old world but still we are humans. I don't care to fight each other since one day we will escape this world and it is our real world since we will die if we are killed." He then grumbled under his breath about out dated memes." If I can avoid it I will not try to kill another player. But do not force me to act, because if go to war I will unleash every weapon, every player and every skill at my command. If we go to war I will unleash hell. Please reconsider your words, I want us to work together… not to fight each other." His final words sounded like a plea for understanding.

The aggravated orc and goblin though had nothing of it." You liar!" The goblin roared. The orc then spoke with bearly contained rage." We can't trust you. We can never trust you after last night. You say you want peace? Well we tried that and see where that go us? two dozen dead bodies? This was suppose to be your last chance and you fucked it up. I've had enough of this, enough playing democracy I'm out of hear before I'm stabbed in the back." The orc then turned away and walked away. His fellow goblin warhawk followed him and the remaining greenskins looked apologetically at their dwarfen constituents before following the other two.

Thordek sighed heavily and then said to the assembled members of his race." All of you send out messages to your guild mates, parties and friends. Tell them to get their gear on and to meet up in the square. I have to make an announcement to all of the players in person. I'll be making it at 3PM today." He then turned to Roshi, after a moment of thought he spoke." I want you to also get your company ready for battle, that includes all your and your companies' bots, be sure you have enough food and gold for two weeks. After my announcement make your way to the city gates with your company. You'll be our vanguard force."

Roshi had a sinking feel as to what she was being told to do. She asked." Of course sir… should I tell our men that we are going to war, to get them in the right mind set?"

Thordek nodded solemnly". Tell them to prepare for war and that you will be escorting the remaining greenskins from the city. You'll leave when I send you a messaged." He then looked at the door the greenskins had left through and gave a depressed sigh." I'm hoping we can try one last time for peace with a show of force… but I don't think it will work"

/

_3PM, January 1st  
Zhufbar Central Square _

Central squares were universal in every city or large towns. This dated back thousands of years in human history to the beginnings of civilization. The square served as a market place, a meeting place for the locals, a mustering field for an army and even as a fairgrounds. This transferred over to the fantasy world of Warhammer where like in the real world the squares were centers of activity and to build the virtual cities around. The city of Zhufbar, given its status as an ancient and respected kingdom, had a large square which could fit twenty thousand dwarfs into it.

Its current crowd wasn't even a tenth of full capacity. The crowd consisted of dwarf players and yet again breaking stereotypes they were showing that they were anxious. The crowds had given word that they were to meet in the square and await a speech by their defacto leader Thordek. Rumors were running wild through the crowd, they ranged from that the Averlanders had invaded Slyvania or a dwarf realm, to that Thordek was going to outright declare himself dictator and march on Cragmere or to annex Sylvania himself. They showed their nervousness in their body language from being twitchy to having their heads swivel back and forth looking... for something, anything that would give them an answer.

From the city gates Roshi watched the square along with her company, their army of bots, well over 600 warriors, were outside of the gates awaiting them. The players surrounded twenty greenskin players and acted as their guards. When Thordek makes his speech there was no telling what would happen when the dwarfs reacted to the news about the expedition's massacre. But it would be safer for the greenskin's to be under the protection of players who had some inkling as to what their leader would say.

Then he entered, from the gaping mouth of a carved dwarfs head set into the side of the mountain overlooking Zhufbar. Thordek, in his full Gromil armor, surveyed the dwarfs from his perch. He gave the crowd a moment to silence themselves before he made his speech.

"Ladies and Gentlemen of Zhufbar, last night in the wilds of these mountains a traitor struck our expedition with the Greenskins. There were only two survivors of this massacre a Goblin and a single wounded Dwarf. Each has told a different story on what happened. But what is known is that nearly twenty five people died last night in a surprise attack. The survivors say it was each other who started the attack." He paused so that his words could sink in on the crowd, who mumbled amongst themselves. After a few seconds Thordek continued speaking." Because of this attack both ourselves and the greenskins of Cragmere are on the brink of war."

That got the crowd going with open conversations nervous looks behind them towards the city gates. Thordek raised his hand to silence them." I have tried to negotiate with the greenskins but their ambassadors had made it clear as to where they stand on the matter. There will be no negotiation through proxies. I and the major guilds will march to the south with our army and force the greenskins to the table. If they refuse to listen to reason then they will force our hand to grasp our axe and ready for war."

He took a moment to breath." They will leave us with no choice, for if we don't act then the Greenskins will march here and put Zhufbar to the sword. They want blood and their gunning for us." He then looked to the players." That's why I'm giving you this chance. If you don't wish to fight then you may leave for the fortress of Bachenbog and from there the Empire. If you stay though you will defend your starter city and by doing so you will become stronger. That strength you gain will help you… no it will save you. If you fight you will be stronger for it and escape this hell called WAO."

The crowd was murmuring and that was when Thordek seized the moment." I want to hear you say you want to leave this game!" The Silver Seekers automatically followed his orders and shouted a yes, having been following their leader over the past months." Louder, I can't hear you say that you want to leave and get out of this insane world!" More players, near a thousand now, shouted out a yes." Now were getting some freaking where! I want my ears ringing when I hear you say yes!" The sound was loud when nearly two thousand players shouted at the same time.

Thordek then smiled and said." Prepare for war my brothers. Tomorrow we march." He then turned and left, going back down the carved dwarfs mouth.

Roshi snorted as her boss left. She found the speech not practically spectacular, but it got across the facts. At the same time the ending got the crowd riled up and forced the dwarfs mostly into Thordek's camp. They had the option of leaving, no one was forced to fight and Thordek made that clear. But if they did leave that meant less of a chance of getting out of the game in the long run.

After a few minutes she heard the ding of a message arriving. She opened her inbox and looked at the message. The letter was in two parts, the first being instructions on where to drop off the Greenskins and what to do afterwards, which included building a series of emplacements and trenches in a valley bordering Black Water lake. The second part was a copy and paste of another message this one from a greenskin guild master who met with Thordek once. It was an apology for… Roshi's eyes narrowed as she looked up at her charges after reading the message. There had been another massacre in Cragmere, this time though it was the dwarfs who suffered. When the masters of Cragmere had made their own announcements of the previous night's incident the city had turned against the dwarfen tradesmen and ambassadors and now none remained. Twenty more deaths had occurred, nearly thirty dwarfs lost in less than a day. Thordek then added that he would try talking face to face with the masters of Cragmere but after that news….

Roshi closed her inbox and decided not to tell her company what happened. She didn't want to add more fuel when the kindling was already lit for this bonfire. Instead Roshi, captain of Silver Seekers and Thane of Zhufbar, just turned to her men and said in Khazlid, the dwarfen language." Follow me."

What she didn't notice was a ragged cloaked figure of a dwarf following her company.

Between Kolaz Ungor and the shores of Black Water Lake-40 miles south of Zhufbar  
Mid-Morning of January 3rd

The series of trenches stretched for a mile from the frozen shores of Black Water to the snow covered hill at the base of Kolaz Ungor. The trenches were a series of a single lines that were at shoulder height for dwarfs. The lines were broken by a series of paths that were wide enough for eight dwarfs to walk shoulder to shoulder. Behind the trenches were a series of elevated emplacements which now cannons stuck their stubby barrels out from or grudge throwers awaited to throw their heavy stones. At the recently retaken Kolaz Ungor there was an entire battery of guns looking down along the trenches.

The trench lines them selves were occupied by hundreds of Quarrelers while infront of them where hundreds more Thunderers. Behind the emplacements was the bulk of Zhufbars army, 5,000 dwarfen warriors were ready to move out at a moment's notice to the front of the trenches. Roshi though was not among them; instead she was marching along with her guildmaster out into the valley. Ahead of her were the greenskin army, and it was massive in size. 20,000 plus bots, not including the thousands of players controlling them were arrayed before the stout warriors. They were of all varying degrees of and tiers of bots, but most of them came from the core section. Luckily only a few hundred of the thousands upon thousands of bots were the heavily armored black orcs. Even fewer players had invested into war machines though there were a few score trolls amongst the ranks of greenskins.

Directly infront of her though was another honor guard for the greenskin players which numbered at twice as many dwarfs she had under her command. But as they neared the soldiers started to stop at points a hundred yards apart. Forst was the bots, then her players, then she continued on alongside Thordek only a few feet from him. He then came to a stop and she did as well, their opposite a pair of orcs doing the same.

One orc in slightly better armor than his comrade spoke with a light British accent." Thordek tell me what your terms are so we can avoid this battle." He sounded resigned like he knew these negotiations were not going to work, Roshi felt the same way. When Desiree and Lizbeth had arrived, the latter being hired on as a smith to repair damaged armor during the battle to hopefully not come, they had talked about the possibility of peace. They had come to the conclusion that a snowball stood a better chance in hell over their being peace between the two races. Too much good blood has been split leaving only the bad.

Thordek then spoke, his own voice sounding tired and weary." Zhufbar wants control over the mountains north and east of Cragmere. Your borders will be reduced to 15 miles around Cragmere and we'll allow a five mile bufferzone between our lands that we agree won't be violated. No Greenskins are allowed north of the bufferzone. If they are caught north of it I will fine them the first time and send them back and the second time that they violate our agreement I'll kill them, that will go for our people as well. Besides an apology I won't ask for anything else."

The well armored orc sighed and shook his head." I can't do that." He then looked at Thordek and said." I'll issue my challenge in 30 minutes. Get back to your lines and prepare for us."

Thordek looked up at the orc with pleading eyes." If we do this… if we go to war like this…."

The orc shook his head." I know. One of our peoples are going to be destroyed. I won't stop till Zhufbar is ground into the dust and you won't stop till you do the same to my city. I've played you enough times back IRL to know you unleash Total War."

Thordek snorted what could have been a laugh." That was an awesome game… this would have been as well if you didn't have to die as well."

The orc cracked a sad smile." Well you can always surrender?"

Thordek shook his head and said." I can't… goodbye." He then turned and started to walk away. Roshi joined her boss as the Orcs headed back to their lines. She didn't ask how those two met in the past, but she could tell by the title Total War they had at least met in that old game. She didn't want to hear anymore about friendships or family's being torn apart, she dealt with that enough on her own. She focused her mind instead on what was going to be needed of her in the next few momemts.

She heard Thordek speak to her in Khazlid, since they were still in speaking distance of the greenskins." Get your company in the center of the line twenty yards infront of the trenches. I want spacing for the Thunderers in between your ranks. Also I want you to have pathways for the Thunderers to retreat though when the greenskins charge."

Roshi nodded." Of course sir, but wouldn't that leave the lines weaken when my men fill in the gaps? I know my people can hold the line but maybe not as long as they could otherwise."

"I'll try to re-enforce what I can when the Thunderers are out of the way. But you need to watch out for them since…." Thordek stopped himself." Nevermind I have a few things planned for the Thunderers anyway."

Roshi didn't press him for more details. Instead she asked a question that had been bothering her for the past few days." Sir is it true? Drestov can't speak any more even with that arrow out of his neck?"

She then noticed that Thordek moved faster, getting ahead of her more. But she did hear him say one word." Yes."

/

Almost thirty minutes later Roshi was awaiting along with the rest the warriors on the front lines, well second line for her but close enough. She had had her first 5 lines of warriors and their commanders into guard mode while leaving another 200 warriors in their own troop blocks to fill in the gaps left when the Thunderers made their retreat. But her part of the line only consisted of little under a 10th of the total number of troops in whole army.

She was proud to note only a few dozen dwarf players had elected to stay back at Zhufbar or make their way to the human lands. The NPC guards of Zhufbar would be able to fight off a few thousand greenskins just incase the army she was facing had part of their force go around the mountains to try and take the city, so the city would be safe unless the main greenskin army broke through here. She intended that it wouldn't happen with her line. If she was to escape this goddamn game and escape her life at home she would be fighting tooth and nail to make that happen.

Roshi then looked back for a quick glance, somewhere in the rear Desiree and her platoon of strikers awaited their orders to advance. She wondered if her friend would be able to handle mass combat, she had shown that she was good with her great hammer but with command of troops in a mass battle? Roshi wasn't sure what would happen when she got involved. In addition to the regular core and specials for a brief moment Roshi caught sight of the orange-red mohawks of slayers, there were not a lot of them but she had an idea when and where they were to be used when the trolls crashed into the lines.

As Roshi swiveled her head back to the battle line in front of her there was a dwarf next to her she hadn't seen before. He was not a bot, but one who nearly looked identical to one, who was smoking a pipe and was covered in a ragged cloak. He looked out of place in the army because he didn't have a shield nor did he look to have any bots she could see. He then turned to Roshi and though most of his face was obscured from the cloaks hood she could see his smile, which was ringed by a white beard and mustache." You'll do fine Roshi." She was taken aback by him calling her real name. Roshi was about to ask how he knew her name when her attention was taken back to the battlefield.

Then she heard it the sounds of hundreds of horns and drums beating all at once from the greenskin's lines. Then she felt it, the vibrations of 40,000 feet slamming against the earth with guttural screams. Then she saw it, a tidal wave of green and black marching at the double to her army. This was the battle her guild master had feared and one she had been waiting for nearly two days.

"Shield wall!" Roshi shouted and the other commanders followed suit, thousands of shields with the colors of Zhufbar and family crests locking together as one. The strange dwarf putting away his pipe and instead grabbing the haft of his axe. Horns blared, bagpipes howled and drums beat from her side and smoke shot over head as thunderclaps could be heard. Dozens of cannon balls lanced out from the emplacements and grudge throwers snapped as one.

The damage the siege engines were doing was quite evident, great gouges, like spear thrusts, appeared in the enemy line as hundreds of bots and a few players died. But as the greenskins were turned to mush more took bots took their place instead and the gaps were filled in. Then the first of the greenskins artillery arrived. Most of the stone throwers shots missed the dwarfen lines, in fact a few landed on top of the greenskins army themselves. But what did hit was just as bad nearly killing all the bots outright while the players stood some chance of surviving.

Again the dwarfen emplacements fired their deadly shot and again hundreds more bots fell that instant. But now the Thunderers and Quarellers added their own fire to the mix and felled another two hundred bots. The greenskins ran over their dead getting ready for a charge. As they neared the orcs and goblins were given boosts to their fighting prowess when red and green lightning bolts lanced out and hit them, causing the troops to glow from magical buffs.

Once more the Thunderers fired before retiring behind the trenches, the enemy being harassed but not broken. As they fell back the greenskins surged towards the weaken lines, their monsters leading the way. Roshi's reserves then moved up to plug the holes.

Then like a tidal wave the enemy crashed against her people's army and she braced herself. She was pushed by the force of untold tons of flesh crashing against her lines. Hundreds of greenskins died from the impact on axes, warhammers and the weight of those behind. The front line dwarfs who took the full charge also died while making sure that with their skills three died for every one of them.

Then it was the second lines turn to fight. Roshi pushed along with her brothers in arms forwards, allowing space to be had for them to use their weapons and so they did. Axes flashed, choppers swung and there was armors piercing ring. Roshi's axe head was covered in gore and blood in a matter moments as she split open throats, rip open chests and decapitated bots.

Roshi quickly lost herself to a rythem she had been drilling herself into over the past two months. Shield front, push enemy, glace to see what enemies there were and then attack. She repeated it again and again. Along with her and the rest of her guild being the heart of the line they were holding and were soon able to break the first wave of greenskins, only the monstrous infantry was fighting and that was in the weaker part of the line.

Then the second wave came, and this time it came much faster than before and allowed for no respite. This wave consisted of boar boyz and boar chariots and they were aimed directly at the weak points of the line. The cannons were able to get off a single accurate volley and the quarrellers a splattering of inaccurate shots, scores of boars and their riders fell. They kept on coming though and they were buffed, despite the best efforts of runesmiths who tried to dispel the spells.

With bestial howls they slammed into the weaker lines, with the third wave of 10,000 greenskins, including the heavy armored black orcs coming up from behind. The dwarfs on the weaker lines were skewered, slashed and trampled as the boar boys and chariots gored Roshi's bearded brothers. But the line held, the last line held with all the courage that players could muster. They killed the riders, killed their beasts and hacked apart the chariots all the while the players that were alive about having pork tonight.

The third wave, the largest and most powerful then slammed into the lines. This time it was so much worse for the Zhufbarians. Their lines, having been disarrayed and close to breaking from the first two assaults now began to feel the strain on them. Double grapeshot into the greenskin army did little to stop it save to blow holes into the hordes. Roshi found herself and six other players back to back as their line had been slaughtered down to the forth, which still stood but just barely.

The weakest portions of the lines were finally overrun, the greenskins felling on the flanks of the main army. Thordek then ordered his strikers and slayers forwards and they started to do their best on confronting the greenskins blow to blow. The Quarrelers charged out of their own trenches to face the greenskins with their own blades. But even as they did so more and more of the mad greenskins piled in including goblin fanatics and the black orcs.

'If Thordek's got a better plan than this now would be a great time to use it!' Roshi thought as she deflected a blow from chopper, which clipped her chin.

Suddenly Roshi then heard a roar and turned around to look at the strange player dwarf from earlier. She saw him throw his ragged cloak to the earth and heard his yell… but it was his appearance which left her dumbfounded.

Under that ragged cloak was a figure armored in gold, dragon scales and gromil that shined brighter than the stars. The axe he carried was half covered in gold and in… another metal, with scaling beautiful runes all along the blade. Upon his shoulders was a blue and red cloak with actual gold thread, made out of the metal, that had the rune of Valaya eteched on it. But there was one thing that was the most distinguishable thing about the odwarf. It was his full, braided, gold clamped and completely white beard.

The White Dwarf had made his entrance.


	3. War in the Mountains: Inner Beasts

**A/N: See first chapter for Disclaimer. Well here is the last of the War in the Mountains Arc and a mile stone with this story breaking 100K words, enjoy.**

**Reply to Reviewers **

**Coronadomontes: ****Thank you for your support!**

/

_Between Kolaz Ungor and the shores of Black Water Lake-40 miles south of Zhufbar  
Noon of January 3rd_

The White Dwarf, the living ancestor, the spirit of vengeance, he went by these names and more. He was said to be the god of dwarf revenge, the re-incarnation of Snorri White beard or even one of the dwarf gods. He marched along dwarven armies for millennium, always being hidden until he was needed on the front lines. His deeds were legend including swearing an oath of comradeship with the slayer Gotek Gurnisson and the brewer ranger Josef Bugman on a bloodstained battlefield after laying waste to an army of greenskins. Despite all his other names the White Dwarf had one name which was recognized by all dwarf kind, Grombindal. And today Grombindal was creating a new legend on the battlefield outside of Kolaz Ungor.

"Khazukhan Khrum! The Dwarfs March to war!" He shouted and instead of holding the shieldwall like Roshi and the other Silver Seekers were doing he instead charged into the enemy ranks in front of him. The sea of green was quickly becoming a whirlwind of red as Grombindal started his rampage though the enemy ranks. His rune encrusted ax shining a bright blue as it cleaved through orc and goblin flesh.

Roshi saw an opportunity at that moment, with Grombindal wading into the thick of combat and taking the pressure off her line for just a moment, she could press into the tide of green and break it. She took the opportunity and shouted out in her cockney accented voice." Shields form arrow on me!" She then had her shield in front of her, bracing it against her body and raised her axe up. As her players started to surround her and ordered." Charge!" Roshi's legs were moving before she had even finished her order.

Roshi felt strength building in her axe arm as she made the charge, bots and players former to each side of her in a rough triangle. She brought her axe down on the chest of an orc boy and brought it down, splitting him open from breast to pelvis. She was then onto the next enemy, a goblin, which she easily decapitated. Around her was an orgy of violence as her unit charged into the enemy ranks to Grombindal.

As Roshi's makeshift offensive was making headway other units were starting to follow her example and all along the front the dwarfs were now charging in units piercing into the enemy ranks. As the warriors were carving into the greenskins there were other opportunity's taken as well. The last of dwarfen reserves were called up and made their way to the front. The lowest level players with their regiments along with the few remaining slayers joined in the push. Along with the melee troops there was the emplaced guns and the thunderers who were moved up to the emplacements. Blasts of grape shot and musket balls lanced into the greenskins who were on the flanks of the charging dwarfs, taking pressure off of their flanks.

The slaughter the dwarfs wrought upon the greenskins was terrifying to behold as if it was out of an epic which many of the players had to suffer through in literature class, but were instead living it. The battle was closer in description of a harvester mowing down wheat. The lines of the dwarfs like the steel teeth separating the wheat from each other and the firearms then acting as a saw, grinding the bots into hamburger. Grombindal was the first to break through the lines as were soon the rest of the warriors. But even as they were seemingly on the verge of victory there was a final enemy line.

Over a thousand enemy players were arrayed in front of the throng. With a mighty roar of 'WWWAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!' they surged towards to the Zhufbarians who were just reorganizing from their charge. As the greenskins came on siege engines from both sides fired directly at each other's force. Unlike other times throughout the battle in which the artillery had the caused most causality's with bots, these shots were directly aimed at the players. It was one thing to see bots crushed or eviscerated by the siege engines but it was another to see your comrades being so destroyed or dodging a near miss. There was real fear when suddenly you see a cannon ball a moment before it smashes into your face. But despite all that the greenskins came on through the fusillade.

Along the line the dwarfs on the otherhand could feel fear, these were not bots, no programs which were so easy to kill, they were people who had been grinding and leveling as much as they were. They wanted to live and escape the game as much as the next person, but they were willing to kill to do so like them. Roshi felt the urge to charge, to fight, but she needed to defend her troops… and then she saw The White Dwarf. Grombindal lowered his axe and looked back behind him, spears landing around his feet from Chucka's. He looked directly at Roshi and she could see in his eyes two words. "Do it."

She could feel the tide of battle meeting its climax, to stay and fight against players, to kill real humans, to feel the fear of life being a razors edge of being taken away… and she loved it. Roshi could feel something primal take over in her mind, something her father and brothers had tried to quell in the real world. She smiled like a predator and yelled." Get at them lads, kill, Kill, KILL!" Then once more she was leading the army in a charge. Roshi was not an arm chair general like Thordek who was somewhere in the rear, at that moment she was not an officer, she was a warrior fighting to Slay, Scavenge and Survive the Apocalyspe of Old. A new beast was unleashed.

Grombindal laughed like a mad man and joined her in the charge, then upon seeing a captain of the Silver Seekers running towards the enemy the rest of the throng started to move in behind her. Roshi unleased a warcry to rival an orc waaagggh as she sprinted the final distance to the charging greenskins. With her MP down low, she didn't care and used what was left to do a running jump. She brought her axe down at the same time as she kneed an orc players head, the blade cutting another orcs face off. As the kneed orc fell she rolled as she hit the ground and came up fighting against more players.

Around her the bloodstained chainmail of the throng and the flesh of the greenskins clashed as if two waves crashed into each other. Both sides ran over each other, the front ranks falling or thrown over each other. Players met each other in a duel of skills and strength. The orcs having a longer reach while the dwarfs getting stronger armor. The goblins with speed and the stunties with strength. It was an even match. Roshi herself soon found herself out numbered, but she kept on fighting.

Roshi was slowed and nearly stopped though when a goblin's spear had found a chink in her armor and was able to lodge its head in her side under her right arm. She cursed at the sudden spear thrust with it taking down a huge chunk of her health. Roshi then turned and spit blood into the goblins face before using her shield to hit the goblin in the neck, her axe now useless due to the spear. As her circlet kept her health from slipping into the red she could only use her shield to defend herself, unless she made her wound worse.

Roshi then felt some of her sanity return and she started to back up towards her friendly lines. She couldn't get to it due to being surrounded and this time more choppa's began to swing to her or spears aimed at her body. Her savior appeared behind her, with a single swipe of his sword he chopped through the spear shaft in her side allowing her movement. She turned her head expecting to see The White Dwarf, but instead she saw another dwarf. His shield was quartered between red and white and he wore a red cloak, his beard and hair was pure grey and most peculiar of all was that he was armed with a sword unlike every other member of his race. But as soon as he helped her he was moving on at a lightning pace fighting multiple players all at once.

Roshi was able to fight again, but the two enemy forces were still evenly match… till the dwarfs played their final trump card.

Behind the greenskin warmacines the snow covered earth gave away and out of it vomited forth mounted knights on a ramp. These knights were both of the empire, Weiss's men and High Elven Silver Helms. They numbered only 50 riders including the bots, but they were an armored first sucker punching the enemy. They road past the warmachines as a hundred dwarven miners charged out of the hole next their pick axes raised up to cleave not rock but their hated foe. They descended on the warmachine crews, hooting and hollering some cursing them for friends lost on the New Years massacre. The final wave was of dark elves and more humans. Weiss's daughter Bertha sent a crackling lightning bolt out from her index finger destroying a stone thrower.

The knights lowered their lances at the backs of the greenskins already in melee with the dwarfs and with a final spurring charged into the rear. Tons of horse flesh and lances speared into the backs of the greenskins, some impaling one or two at a time. Weiss was able to get a trio of goblins with his lance, the first with the tip entering through his neck, the next one through his chest and the final one being pinned when the lance tip entered his foot.

As the lances broke the knights drew their blades, most were mundane steel though for Weiss and the elven knight commander their blades were magical. They hacked and stabbed their way to the dwarfs, only a few of their number falling from attacks by counter attacks from the greenskins. Klein was at the head of the charge showing good sword craft in his persecution of the orcs. This was too much for the greenskins to stand. The Orcs and Goblins began to ran or surrender.

Hundreds of greenskin players were routed and began running. The dwarfs that tried to pursue were soon outstripped and their allies had restrained themselves in pursuit of the defeated enemy. Even now they were not ready to run down retreating greenskins who had not done anything to them personally.

/

As soon as she found that she had no one else to fight Roshi was struck by the events of just the past hour, the blood lust leaving her mind. She felt dizzy when she remembered what she had done to the players… of the players face she had sliced off, of the one she bashed in the neck… how many other lives did she end? She felt onto her hands and knees and started to throw up. To her horror she saw blood in her vomit and made her more sick.

Tears formed in her eyes as she silently prayed to the gods to forgive her for what she had done today.

She was only broken out of her vomiting fit when she felt a hand on her shoulder and the words." Let me help you." It was Thordek. He then gripped the remains of the spear haft and pulled its head from her body.

Roshi gave a grunt when it was pulled free and began to feel the wound start to heal itself with help from her circlet. With a wheezing breath she said." Thank you sir." She looked up and scanned her fellow dwarfs looking around at the butchery around her. She averted her eyes and instead sat down to look at her commander.

Thordek snorted." Least I can do after that charge. Thank you for that, even though you did get stabbed. But you were able to get their attention long enough for the reserves to arrive.

Roshi took the praise silently and asked." There was a warrior who saved me. He didn't wear any Zhufbar colors." She took a moment to remember what she could of him." His shielded was quartered in red and white, he was armed with a sword and had a pure grey beard."

Thordek recognized the description and nodded." Aye, he came in back on new year's, he was from Everpeak. He wanted to scout about for members of a guild he's putting together. Told him that he may but if they belong to my guild then he had better come to me first. His name was Zarr Karag, odd name that… but can't complain."

Roshi decided to thank her savior later on if she got a chance, but instead she continued to question her commander." With the reserves I can understand the miners, and I was wondering when Weiss would show up. But the elves?" The miners having the ability to ambush came from the original wargame and she had a suspicion of them being used that way when they weren't on the battleline earlier. The Men of the Empire she wasn't so sure about, since the Empire was proving to be a treacherous place and she didn't know if they would honor the deals. The elves on the otherhand….

" Their mercenaries. They arrived at the edge of the mountains last night and joined up with Weiss, with the expectation that I'll pay them. Apparently they had been booking it since they arrived in the Empire last week." He gave a shrug." I wonder how much that will cost…." He wondered aloud. Thordek then said." Meet me back at my HQ in an hour, we'll need to discuss the future siege of Cragmere."

He then turned to leave, but Roshi stopped him." Was that really the White Dwarf?" She asked.

Roshi had heard from stories told by NPCs about the White Dwarf, but only heard little anything beyond that. She knew some of the players who had heard about him but till today she had barely given the stories any thought. After all why worry about a fictional character when you were paying a game of life and death. But he spoke her name, her real name….

Thordek smirked and gave a grunt of a laugh." Yeah, that's the White Dwarf. His name is Grombindal by the way, I saw him leave a few minutes after the last of the greenskins ran away. But there is one thing about him I'm surprised he didn't do."

Roshi blinked and asked." What was that sir?"

"He didn't answer my questions like he does at the end of every White Dwarf."

/

Desiree ran to the elves after making sure her platoon was organized and had sent word to Lizbeth to see about maintaining her platoons equipment. She pushed through the dwarfs surrounding them, who were trying to talk to or get a look at them. She had more reason than most to see about meeting the elves. Pushed forward looking up at the inhumanly tall elves and especially to one in particular who was riding atop a barded steed.

His face was obscured by a helmet but still she had to be certain. That certainly grew as she noticed his heavy set body type and she shouted out." Kurt!"

He turned his head in Desirees direction and she knew it was her husband. She ran up to the horse and her husband recognized her." Desiree!" He smiled so wide all his teeth were visible. " Let me help you up." Kurt then picked her up by the back of her armor and into his saddle.

Desiree wrapped her arms around him and kissed him hard. Kurt returned the affection and hugged her closer to his body. From around them the collected players went 'daaww', chuckled or cheered them on.

Lisbeth stood outside of the group of dwarfs, waiting till Desiree was done with her kiss fest with her husband. Lizbeth had not participated in the battle, instead acting as a smith to maintain Zhufbars throng's armor and weapons in the rear. She wore her smiting clothes and was covered in soot, since she was fresh from the forge.

She then saw an elf, a dark elf from his black clothes , make his way to her after talking to a few other warriors. Lisbeth could make out his features and determined him to be about her age and also Japanese, though extremely tall due to his race. He spoke to her." Hello I heard that you were a good smith and I was wondering if you could repair my equipment? I haven't really had a chance to stop by a black smith on my way south."

She crossed her arms across her chest." 'Course I can, but can you pay?" The elf then produced a pair of gold crowns from his coat and handed them to Lisbeth. She pocketed them, a good enough fee for a simple repair job.

"My name is Lizbeth. What is yours?" She asked of the elf.

"My name is Kirito." He smiled… of which Lisbeth found cute.

/

_On the road to Cragmere  
Afternoon of January 3rd_

Juro cursed the idiots in charge of the greenskin's army. They believed in zerg rushes, using the attack mentality of the original game, to over come the dwarfs. It nearly worked at that, but the dwarfs were crafty. She wished her superiors were just so and used something else than just charging in, like a flanking movement or make boats to go around the dwarfs sides and surround them. But no instead they had to believe in just burying the stunties under their bots and finally the players.

She looked back behind her at the line of defeated players, all heading to Cragmere. The dwarfs would be coming soon, maybe not today but maybe in a few days a week at most. Then they would try to take Black Crag, it would be a matter of time before that happened, even if they were outnumbered by a few thousand more greenskins they would be low leveled players and not the crème used today. She then looked back towards Cragmere, then beyond…. There would be better opportunities beyond the mountains, opportunity's she would take for sure.

/

_20 miles outside of Averheim  
Afternoon of January 20th_

Kibaou found the day to be rather pleasant considering the snow storm moving in later on in the day. He was the 'Count' of Averland and the leader of the PLA, commander of an army 5,000 strong, incredibly rich from the tithes the people within the army and had a harem of girls back at his palace. Today though he had left the comfort of the 'girl's' arms and the new ones in the dungeon to a little town he had no reason to remember. Of course he couldn't leave without some comforts so he brought his opulent carriage along with wine and his most subservient pleasure girl Silica.

Since the night of his coup he had kept her in the palace taming her till now she was a good little slut who called him Oni-Sama. She was resistant at first but after a few weeks she had warmed up and couldn't get enough of him. She had tried to use the ethics system but he had bound her hands and kept on forcing her to say that no she wasn't being abused. She was awaiting him back in the carriage like a dog, more of a bitch by his reckoning. In the carriage Silica wore a red, yellow and black corset and mini skirt along with a pair of black high heels.

But he would get back to her later on after his business was accomplished. Right now Kibaou was in a middle of a conversation with General Tavington and the Big Boss of a greenskin horde. The latter were refugees from Cragmere, the fortress falling just three days earlier after the two week siege from the dwarfs of Zhufbar. When the Greenskins had surrendered they were permitted by the dwarfs to leave to wherever they desired outside of the world edge mountains. Most went to the bad lands but 400 players had instead elected to go west and now the final dealings for their settlement was coming to a close.

The Big Boss Fethof nodded and said." Yes well start to fight for your armies in two months once we settle in and leveled up enough." He sounded tried, unlike say the bots who loved to fight the greenskin players were not that resistant to fatigue. Considering the two week long cannon bombardment and then march to Averland it was no surprised.

"Of course, but Tavington will be your minder. Your horde will get seconds when it comes to the hunting grounds. But you will be protected." Kibaou said to Fethof. Kibaou could see the relief as the orc straighten his back, relieved of his duty to his duty.

"Thank you Count, the boys and I won't forget it." Fethof said.

Kibaou waved him off." I only want loyalty in return." He then looked at the banners and snorted." I see that you already have checker banners. Now since you have the rest in order I'll be leaving you to Tavington." Kibaou then turned on his heel and left, his checkered cloak swishing behind him.

He then entered the carriage and immediately felt at his side Silica snuggling up to him." Oh Oni-Sama you must be so cold let me warm you up." She said cheerfully . Kibaou gave a barking laugh and hit the roof of the carriage with his cane, the grandiose carriage moving a moment later.

After twenty minutes and a few miles of traveling from the refugee camp Silica suddenly got excited." Oh Oni-Sama! Let's stop at that barn! I've always wanted to do a roll in the hay!" She pointed to a farmers barn along the roadway.

Kibaou chuckled." Why the hell not?" He trusted Silica enough now that for the past few weeks she could wander in his dungeon with out any repercussions, so this was a fine adventure. He poked his head out from the window of the carriage and said to the driver." Stop at the barn."

The driver did so and Kibaou and Silica jumped out the carriage." Catch me Oni-Sama!" She was the first into the barn, her skirt riding up and enticing her jailor to follow her.

Kibaou followed Silica in and saw her with her back turned and body against the wall, he heard her whispering to get nearer. He smirked and then sauntered up to her. He reached out and grabbed her ass." Caught'cha!" He shouted.

Then he heard Silica speak." No silly… I caught you!" Then suddenly Kibaou caught the bestial visage of Silica's face for a moment as she turned to him. He was the knocked from under the chin by a wooden bucket, the force of the blow knocking him out. He then twisted around and satisfyingly fell face first into a pile of horse shit.

Silica dropped the bucket and looked at her fingers, her nails having grown into claws and her face covered in fur, short fangs sticking from her mouth. It had taken her weeks of convincing Kiabou that she wouldn't resist him any more, and then more so to be left alone in the dungeons. When she was first brought to the dungeons underneath the palace she had noticed, between rape sessions, that there were mobs. Little rats which allowed for five or ten XP per kill and were over looked by almost all players. But it was there that she started her plan of escape and when she was allowed to roam the dungeons freely she took the time to do grinding.

Silica never told anyone, even the other girls who were prisoners of Kibaou she kept it a secret since she didn't want it getting out. When she had hit level five the week before she had decided to go the path of a wizard, with it she learned the lore of the wild and its signature spell Wyssans Wildform. The other lore's were helpful, but they wouldn't be able to give her a boost to strength, toughness and initiative she needed to escape. So she had waited till an opportunity had presented itself where she could escape outside of Averheim and today was the day.

She looked down at Kibaou and spit on him. Silica could do no more, even with her buffed stats and appearance she would still have to deal with the carriage driver and she was without a serious weapon. Instead she saw an open stable window and ran to it. With a running leap on all fours she jumped through the window. Silica was finally free in the forests.


	4. WAO Interlude: Spotlight Change

**A/N: See first chapter for disclaimer. I decided to throw in a quick chapter as an Interlude for you kind folks. It was kinda bear in this area of the story where we didn't focuses on any of the power players. Since I'm splitting up the story might as well focus somewhat on them this time. So this chapter will be pretty short and not my best work… though next chapter we will be re-introduced to one of our regulars. **

/

_Nuln  
Morning of 27 February, 2023_

It was a cold day in the Empire's southernmost city-state. Despite that the temperature was just a few degrees above freezing the Reik flowed through the city unhindered. The streets were packed with NPC's and players, along with the forces under their control.

After the December Revolution the city had turned into a fortress. Those players who weren't on the PLA payroll had a choice after the revolution , either they could go free and explore the Warhammer world, which over a thousand did so gladly, or remain to join the cities garrisons, which was part of the Imperial Army. Thus turning the city into a fortress garrisoned with thousands of players and their bots. The players that had joined the garrisons now had their levels at least in the high teens or low twenties with several score bots under their control. Given that Nuln produced fine gunpowder based weaponry a good portion of the players had invested into hand gunners or artillery. Many of these players also had the opportunity to go into business at the forges, which were rented out to the cities garrison members and any other player that could afford the high rent.

In addition to the garrison's and freelance players, there were two other groups of players that emerged from the city. The first was the Peoples Liberation Army POW's taken in the revolution. After a few weeks it was decided that they would be sent to penal colonies across the Empire to work in mines, fields or other area's for raw material. The second group was the saddest.

When WAO was launched it was rated M for Mature, but for the parents of children stuck in the game that was more of a suggestion than a rule. The game was after all a fantasy one with a minimum of blood and guts, along with an ethics system to protect the kids. Those assurances were thrown out the door in the first day of the game being fully released when Akihiko made his announcement that now made player death an all too real thing. Soon afterwards word spread that there wan an option to turn the ethics system off and to force people into turning it off. This allowed the youngest to be exploited.

If a child wanted to join the Imperial Army he or she was more than welcomed to provided they could keep their cool in a fight, of which there were several hundred in the ranks of the Imperial Army. The kids who didn't want to fight though or were really to young, 10 years old was the limit, they needed to be kept from the frontlines as much as possible. In order to accommodate this need a huge orphanage occupying a city block was created in Altdorf.

Not all the children that went to the orphanage were from the Empire though, there were many elves, dwarfs, beastmen and a few Chaos Warriors that had been able to escape to the south along with those players who were not inclined to their chaotic brethren. The children were set up in individual dorms with volunteers looking after them. The kids were limited to explore the city but not beyond it. If some were lucky they even got foster parents.

It was a fate Sinon nearly avoided. At 13 years old the young sniper was one of the deadlier members of the Imperial Army. She had displayed an unnatural ability at shooting with muskets, which led to her use of her current weapon a Hochland long rifle which was bigger than she was. A few months ago she could of thrown it all away at the beginning of the game.

Sinon wanted an escape in the form of Virtual Reality from her real world life of trauma and bullying. The world of Warhammer looked to be the perfect escape where there was no danger in real life to her or anyone else. Then she saw the announcement by Akihiko and she was nearly paralyzed by fear and dread. She held the decision of life and death in her hands once before and she never wanted to do so again. Even when she returned to Nuln she was stunned and couldn't move… till she realized there was running and shouting and so she moved as well. The group she moved and ran with turned out to be lead by Thinker and she followed them into the sewers beneath the city. It was hectic and filled with confusion in the tunnel as she ran. She saw there was a fight and there was a flash of muskets and pistols in the underbelly of the city. She could remember taking up a musket from a fallen runner and reliving the bank robbery from only a few years ago. Again more people were in danger and her hands acted on their own. She shouldered the rifle and then aimed down the barrel. She pulled the trigger and with a flash of powder along with near blinding smoke she killed her first player.

After that horrifying experience followed by more fighting she realized that she was easing her trauma from a few years ago. As she began to realize the group she fought with were protecting people and giving them a chance in the Warhammer world her nerves turned steelier. By the time the revolution arrived she was a warrior and sniper who was ready to die and kill. Yes she was haunted by her actions but they were eased by the reasons why she did them.

If she didn't take up that musket in the swearers she was sure she would be in an orphanage as one of the helpers or the children there.

But because of her choice in taking up arms, it had led her away from Thinkers cadre of fighters and into another group of soldiers. Thinker was to defensive in his actions, instead of turning his full army onto the borders of Averland he was instead building Nuln into a fortress. Sinon couldn't stay behind the walls while evil stalked outside of them. She joined the only force in Nuln that was allowed to face the Averlanders and other threats to the city.

The Brunswick Corps was originally a regiment of 20 players that formed up into riflemen in the first few days after WAO launched, they escaped Nuln in the first few minutes of the game officially launching. The group were raiders who targeted the PLA outside the walls and led incursions into Averland, rescuing some of the Beastmen refugees as well. When Nuln was liberated their leader, a man by the name of Sharpe arrived at the gates of Nuln with captured 20 cannons, 300 Horses and over 2000 silver pieces to give to the city. Since then his Brunswick Corps had expanded to 6 different regiments and over 200 players.

Sinon was now part of the rifles, the Imperial Green Jackets. Where's the majority of Nuln's players and bots were decked out in black, the Green Jackets were allowed more color in their uniform. The uniform itself was based on the 95th rifles of the Napoleonic wars, consisting a pair of grey trousers, green jacket with silver buttons and a black shako with a green braid, along with the symbol of the light infantry. On her right shoulder was a black band with a white trim, a symbol of the Chosen Men, the elites of the 1st Imperial Green Jackets.

Sinon was resting outside of the walls of the city. It may have been cold but she enjoyed being out of the confines of Nuln. She was encamped with her regiment of Imperial Green Jackets on Britenfield. It was after a night of patrolling the border so she was looking forward to resting and relaxing. It was a life she found that she liked and would enjoy till she wither died in game or escaped to her home.

/

_Altdorf  
Afternoon of February 27__th__, 2023_

The upper echelons of power in the Imperial Capital were for the most part fans of fantasy, one of the big things to come out in the most recent years in regards to fantasy turned out to be Game of Thrones. As a result of watching the show and their own passive intentions for power they all had paranoia at some degree or other about their co-workers. This showed up passively in the heavy armor they wore and bot attendants that ate foods meant for their masters first.

The three main proponents of this power player life were the brothers Mortimer and Eugene, along with the American Stephan. Despite the threat that all three could turn on one another they kept a good working relationship. Mortimer had taken on the warrior priest class and was rising through the ranks of the Church of Sigmar. Eugene and Stephan had gone the military route of soldiers.

They each had different roles as masters of the Empire. Mortimer was the master of the day to day operations in Altdorf and entertaining dignitaries from the other countries, due to his work behind the scenes he was not the most popular face in Altdorf. Stephan was in charge of operations beyond Altdorf's scope and was the most popular of the three, due in part because of his actions during the revolution. Eugene was in charge of training up the Imperial Army which included operations in the regions surrounding Altdorf, he was the second most popular of the three leaders.

It would have been assumed that if there was to be treachery it would come from the brothers first, or if not Stephan would use his popularity to overthrow the two. As it turned out the paranoia all three shared for one another stopped them from back stabbing each other, even blood lines was not armor against this. Stephan could easily use the people who followed him to over throw one of the brothers, the problem being that the remaining brother would have sympathy and support to overthrow him in return from the opposition. Mortimer could try to take down Stephan and put his brother in charge of the entire Imperial Army, but would have to go through Stephan's loyalists. Eugene was actually happy with the current situation, he was friendly with Stephan because of their similar military back grounds while at the same time he was still a brother to Mortimer, he could influence either whichever way he wanted.

Today though instead of sparing for power the trio were actually doing work. Mortimer spoke at the table and read over the past achievements of the day." –And we took care of the meeting with the Lizardmen, then over went the cost of powder. Now we come to the last bit of the agenda, what to do with the AJA?" AJA was short for the Angry Joe Army, a very popular gaming force that had bought WAO as a group and followed their leader Angry Joe into the game. They were based in Middenheim, though they didn't play a part in the revolution since their leader was immediately imprisoned by the PLA upon being recognized. Since the revolution though they were a powerful force of 500 gamers that made up a sizeable portion of the north and were gaining more and more territory, by buying towns and taking over NPC castles.

Jack had sent word that if nothing was to be done with them he was to act on his own. His intent on that action though wasn't apparent so it left the Altdorfian's as the ones to make the choice. Stephan rose his hand." Let them join the Imperial Army in the north. They hate the PLA as much as we do."

Eugene then spoke next." Let them join Jack's forces. But at the same time send word that they should be used to help bring in more lands controlled by the NPCs. Such as Nordland or Ostermark."

Mortimer considered this. Middenheim was already a fairly powerful state on their own, with the AJA they would increase their army considerably and have more influence. Yet to waste an opportunity such as the AJA was not to be missed and to allow them to go free would be a bad idea. Mortimer nodded." Very well then I'll write up the message, Eugene send it to him when it's finished." He closed the list and leaned back." Our business is concluded for the day. Now then." He leaned forward and steepled his hands." Lets get tow the business of trying to kill each other slowly." He smirked.


	5. Hochland Teachings: First Day of School

**A/N: See first chapter for disclaimer. Well folks these next two chapters will be serving as an Interlude between here and when Krutz shows ups. Here we have an extremely rare occurrence in the Old World, a semi-peaceful occupation and people playing the actual game rather than creating wars and unnecessary drama. Also this is a useful chapter for the introduction of military history if you are interested in it, if not then you'll be dealing with a lot of stuff not related to the plot per say, including talking heads… but doesn't detract from it either. It's more of an exercise for me.**

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**Coronadomontes: Thanks for your review.**

**/**

_Hergig, Capitol of Hochland  
May 2 2023, 10AM_

Hergig was a bustling port city north of the River Tabec. Its buildings being a mix of old and new, the oldest stone buildings being by the waterfront and being cut centuries if not millennium before while the wooden buildings were just under a century old after the sack from the goblin warlord Grom the Paunch. Amongst the buildings though that broke through the two or three storie apartments, houses, taverns and stores were the government buildings. For the most part the series of temples to Sigmar were the most prevalent of the buildings while the temple to Shayla had claim to its towering spire. The cities fortress on the other hand was the most physically impressive with its ring of defenses and palace at its center. The government offices that dotted around the fortress were easily overlooked, save for one.

This office building was of a two story structure rectangular in shape. It was fairly non-descript and didn't stand out save for two factors. Going into and hanging around the building were players of different races and factions, humans from the Empire and barbarians from the north sat in café's talking of their exploits while beastmen and dwarfs discussed western vs. eastern culture. There was even an elven couple, one a dark and the other a high elf who were holding hands. The second factor was outside of the building stood a sign declaring itself the 'Hochland Forest Community College'.

Within students were treated to workshops and to classes that would be similarly offered in the real world, though with some differences. Culinary classes would deal with the players learning recipes and grinding their skills in café's around the college. Metal working became blacksmithing, engineering involved anything from creating firing mechanism for ranged weaponry, to artillery principles and finally to building structures. There were also a multitude of classes that were identical to their real world cousins, theosophy, psychology, culture and of course history.

It was the last which was proving to be most popular, or rather a sub sect of the study. The Military History 101 class was filled with over thirty students of different factions from a trio diminutive dwarfs to a rather attractive blonde minatuaress, while in back two hooded skaven were impossible read from their hidden expression. They sat on benches onto an slopped room with the blackboard at its base. They were awaiting their teacher with their note books open and ready to take notes, as per usual on the first day of class.

The door to the classroom open and the various students turned their eyes to the figure. He was dressed in a long black leather coat and hat of a witch hunter. He marched to the black board his stride confidant and head held high. He turned on his heel and with gloved fingers picked up a piece of chalk and began to write his name. After he was finished he walked to the door closing it and then putting his hat and coat on a hat stand while the students read his name. "Herr Doktor Rufus Adler."

Rufus then turned around and smiled to his class." Let's begin."

/

Rufus Adler spoke to his new class of student." Hello class, my name is Herr Doktor Rufus Adler, you may call me Herr Doktor or Herr Adler. The first thing I want to cover before class begins are the ground rules. Number one is that I do not wish for talking in class unless it is directed at me, vulgarity when addressing me will get you expelled. Number two, you are expected to listen and learn when I teach this lesson. This is the most important subject since I will be running an exam on Friday so you may demonstrate to me that you are worthy to be graduates of my class. Finally, this is more of advice rather than a rule, take notes and talk to your fellow students after class. This will help you keep the knowledge that you learn today in your head." Adler took off his gloves as talked in front of the blackboard.

He rested his gloves on the table and let his students take in his words. In addition to his outward gear he wore a black leather vest over a red peasant shirt and a pair of tan pants tucked into his calf high boots. Across his chest was a baldric where his basket hilted saber was sheathed along with three wooden stakes on the baldric. At his waist were a pair of rifled flint lock pistols, with silver butts and a small collection of blades made of silver and steel.

Rufus then said." With that out of the way, let me welcome you to Military History 101. This class is little more than an introduction and exploration of significant battles through human history. I'll be going into the tactics, strategies and some logistical matters pertaining to the battles that helped change western history. I will of course be skimming over the reasons why theses wars were fought since to even go into detail would take another class… which is the subject of Military Thought and Action, last chance to sign up is after class before I start tonight if you're interested." He knew one of one of his students who was already signed up and his eyes glanced over to the minotauress for just a moment.

His eyes then snapped forward." Of course the fee is still a thousand gold pieces." Rufus added with a half smirk. Military History 101 cost one hundred pieces of gold, but his other class required a full month of dedicated work from both himself and the participants. The Imperial War College offered a similar class and more resources but there was the clause of having to be part of the Empire and part of the growing army there. That was unless you were able to pay two thousand gold pieces and had the permission of the junta to attend. His competing class offered just as good knowledge, if somewhat less… safe.

Rufus cleared his throat." The first battle I will address is that of Thermopylae and no I it will not just be about Gerald Butler in a leather speedo fighting in slow motion." That elicited a few laughs from those who grew up with that movie.

He continued." Instead I will be talking about the use of combined arms through the battle and how the defeated won while the winner lost." He went to the board and started to draw. He drew an eagle eyes view of the battlefield of Thermopylae." Unlike the 300 series has given you, the hot gates was not a battle where the Spartans were surrounded on both sides by cliffs. Instead to their left was the cliffs while to their right were the sea." He then drew a nearby island to represent the straits.

"Before I continue though I can't stress this enough, that the 300 movies are closer to myth than reality." He didn't want to use the word 'fantasy' given the current circumstances of his class being trapped in a fantasy world." Yes they did get some things right… well maybe one or two events right. Instead we'll be focusing on the historical battle instead."

Rufus began his speech." The battle of Thermopylae was a battle which had started 40 years earlier when the Persians suffered their first defeat from the Greeks on the plains of Marathon. The Persians sought retribution and also a quick conquest of Greece after Athens sent an expedition to support a rebellion of one of their former colonies in what is modern day Turkey. To those that are interested in old classics The Warriors was based on the retreat of these Greeks sent there and its an epic tale… reserved for tonight's class." There were some disappointed sighs but nothing really depressing.

" Getting back to my story. It was at the battle of Marathon that the Greeks used their phalanx formation to box in the Persians on the beaches and to stop them from using deploying cavalry. No they didn't break ranks, no they didn't have war axes, the Celts at that time did but they were a thousand miles away in Gaul. It was because of those heavy infantry tactics, strategy and the logistical advantages of the Greeks fighting on home territory and stopping the Persians from unleashing their full strength that the battle was won for the Greeks."

He then chuckled." In actuality the movie 300 actually down played how much Xerxes was pissed. Each night he would have a slave whisper into his ear 'Remember Marathon', since this was his father's greatest defeat. So when he invaded Greece and met the Spartans at Thermopylae he not only had political reasons to do so but also a wounded pride. There is nothing more dangerous than a powerful, absolute monarch with a personal vendetta against one group or another… the list of atrocities would be to many count in this world alone." That last bit made the minotauress, a few other beastmen and several empire players flinch.

" Xerxes took an army that was between 100,000 and 250,000 strong with him to Greece believing that he could crush the collection of city states under the boots of his army. He came close to it, but was stopped at this place." He tapped on the board." By a rag tag army collected from those very same city states."

" The defenders were a collection of warriors and citizens from across what is now Greece. They numbered just at around 6,000 men of which only 5 percent we only remember because they fought to the last. The land forces were under the generalship of King Leonidas, who was one of two kings of Sparta, while the Navy was under the control of Themisacles who had about 200 ships under his command and not the 50 Rise of an Empire tries to pass off. Now we get into the Grecian objectives of the campaign." Adler went to a part of the broad that wasn't used as a diagram and began to write.

"The main Greek objective was to ensure the survival of their city states and their peoples." He wrote that down." To do that they needed to hold back the Persians. I say hold back and not defeat them because at the time the Persians could not be stopped, since there were far too many soldiers in their army." Below the first objective he added 'Hold Back the Persians'." The last objective was to create a rallying point for city states. The only thing that really united Greece at the time was that they spoke the same language and had the same gods, if an army was shown to of had been a strong multi-state co-operation in holding back the Persians then Greece would finally be united… for a time."

After Rufus added the last objective he coughed and spoke." And then we come to the Spartans. While indeed the Spartans had a very good excuse of a religious festival to stop sending their entire army, there were more… practical reasons. Top most was that it wasn't their fight, they didn't participate in the battle of Marathon so the Persians had little reason to go directly after them, in fact in a hundred years Persia would supply ships to Sparta so they could conqueror Athens. This leads into the next reason why they didn't mobilize; they did not trust their neighbors. More often times than not they were fighting against Athens and the other city states. So if they sent their army then the home land would be open to invasion from Athens and rebellions from their Helot slaves. The final reason was that the force sent to Thermopylae was to give the Spartans a legendary defeat. Let's face it the guys who were left behind were seething with envy since The 300 were going to be involved in the greatest battle of the age! The men sent to Thermopylae were those who had given their all to Sparta, but had not yet their lives. They had all given sons but not their lives just yet, for if they did so then their names would be carved into stone. Even Leonidas was old by the standards of the age, he was in his fifty's at the time. I theorize that it was one final hurrah for the old boy and what drove him to fight. But I digress."

He went back to the map of the battlefield." Now we come to the part you've all been waiting for, the battle itself." Adler could hear the class shifting and the mood changing. Even though they probably experienced conflict every day, wars and battles were still something that players seemly looked forward to learning more about.

" The pass on Thermopylae was where the Grecian army set up, behind this bend in the road which was the narrowest part of the pass." He used the chalk to point to the location and then drew a rectangle to represent the Grecian army on the pass. Then he asked the class." Can someone tell me why they would do that? Why not meet the Persians on more equal footing? After all it would have been more honorable and satisfied the Spartans death wish."

A few hands went up, two Empire troopers and the minotauress. He pointed to the Middenlander, who answered." Because that way the Persians would be more exhausted when they attack and make them easier to kill?"

Adler considered this and said." That's an objective that all defenders aim to accomplish. It is relevant to the battle but not integral to the Grecian defense." He looked at the Minotauress and nodded." Miss Tatianna, please give me the reason why the defenders position was integral to their plan."

Tatianna spoke in a clear Russian accented voice." Because it goes back to the objectives of the Greeks. They were to hold back and survive as long as possible against the Persians. That means if they were out of long range of the Persian arrows they would force the Persians to move into range of their own slingers and archers, causing more causality's for the Persians and forcing them to send in their infantry."

"Very good." Adler spoke." That was one part of their plan that did work. Because of the arrow barrage being much shorter than the Persians had planned on, their assault had to begin much earlier with a mostly intact Greek force. There was also a psychological factor of the Persians seeing their dead and wounded on the pass or being carried back to the camp, this would of put fear into them. It was the enemy who was supposed to be dying not their own. Then soon it would be their turn, but instead of being shot at they would have to go in with spears and wicker shields."

In front of the Grecian army Adler drew a solid white line and then spoke." The defenders were not just relying on the shields and strength of their men either. In preparation for the battle they had created a low stone wall to help stop the Persians from getting under foot and breaking their phalanx. When the Persian infantry charged at the Greeks the wall would separate the two army by sword length and the first ranks would be broken up when they charge over the wall. But even before then the human wave would be slowed if not stopped because of hundreds of spear points. Because of the mass of army coming up behind them though the soldiers would be pushed on and on, impaling more of their troops onto the Greek pikes. That would be when the pikes would start breaking and if possible the Greeks would retract the broken pike and use the butt cap to spear the oncoming Persians. It was only when the Persians were in swords length would the Greeks with unbroken pikes draw their short swords.

Because of the low wall the Greeks had the advantage of further breaking up the incoming Persians and would be able to get in the first sword thrusts. Then the Persians would meet the Greek shieldwall and that would be when the armies would really crash. For a few seconds the two armies would hack and slash each other while in close confines. Then they would break off and the attackers would pull back to regroup and then charge back against the defenders. For the whole day they would repeat this process. At the end of the day the Greeks had suffered only a few hundred wounded and a few score dead. While the Persians had suffered over 4,000 to 5,000 dead or wounded."

He took a moment to take a drink of water before continuing." The second day was much the same, except that Xerxes had committed his Immortals to the conflict. The Persians had suffered the same amount of casualties as the day before, but that day they caused up wards of a 1,000 Grecian causalities. The third day though, the third day was when the legend of the 300 was sealed." Adler pointed to straits and said." Over the first two days Themisacles and Athens Navy had been fighting the Persians to a standstill in the straits of Artemisia. Because of their actions they were able to keep the Greeks from being out flanked by the sea. But on the third day Treachery had struck when a local shepherd had gone to the Persians to tell of a goat path which would go around the Hot Gates. The defenders Leonidas had put in charge of the goat path broke when they found the Persians advancing down it. When news reached him of being out flanked he ordered a retreat of most of the Greek forces, leaving only 600 hoplites, including his own guard of 300. With most of the army retreating Leonidas served as a rear guard and moved his remaining soldiers to a wider section of the pass. Here he awaited the Persians.

The end came for Leonidas and the rear guard when they were surrounded and they died under a swarm of arrows and spears. With the rearguard eliminated and the Greeks retreating Themisacles took his ships back down south, there was no need to stay in Artemisia." Alder then turned to the Greek objectives." The Greeks had achieved their objectives for the battle of holding back the Persians. They also gained an advantage over the Persians that battle as well. Can someone tell me what that advantage was? I'll even give you hint it deals with the number of Persian causalities."

A dwarf's hand shot up." The Persians were Decimated." He said.

"Yes they were, please tell the class behind the meaning Decimation if you can?" Adler spoke to the student.

The Dwarf answered." It means to 'reduce by 10', it's a Roman term meant to describe when their legion's or enemy lost every 10th man in battle or in reprisal. When a force suffers 10 percent it loses a lot of it combat effectiveness."

Adler closed his eyes as he nodded." Very good." His eyes open." The Greeks in comparison by the end of the battle had lost a 3rd of their army sent to the Hot Gates. But they had not dedicated their full armies which were put into reserve back in the city states. The Persians though had lost 10,000 men, a 10th of their army and because of having to take care of the casualties as well as more strain on the baggage train another 20,000 were removed from the conflict. As the Persians further advanced down the Grecian states they suffered more casualties from disease. By the time they destroyed Athens upwards of 50,000 Persians had perished. That is not counting the battle of Salamis, but by then it didn't matter.

When the Persians had razed Athens Xerxes had accomplished his personal goals. He had gotten revenge for his father's defeat and he had nearly all of Greece under his control. That was why he left and had his generals attempt to finish the conquest. In the next year though the last of the Persians would be driven out of Greece and the thorn in the side of the Empire would fester. In the end the Greeks had won, though they were close to being destroyed. They won because of their defeat of Thermopylae which caused the Persians to be decimated, to which their ultimate victory was achieved."

He then paused before speaking to his class." I start off my class with this campaign because it help demonstrates the 3 levels of a military command you must associate yourself with if you desire to be officers and lead armies to greatness in your own time."

Adler then wrote on the board at the top,' Tactics'. He then said." The Greek positions and use of their hoplite training stopped the Persians man to man."

Below Tactics he then wrote,' Strategy'." The battlefield was of Greek choosing and forcing the Persians to abandon their cavalry and mass infantry to surround the Greeks."

Then at the bottom he wrote,' Logistics', at which point he tapped on the word." This is most important and contributed the most to Grecian victory. The Persians had suffered over 10,000 casualties on the land alone, but their navy was also Decimated. It was from the sea that the land forces were re-supplied, with part of the navy sunk those supplies came in less and less as the campaign advanced. The retreating Greeks also took as many supplies as they could and deprived the Persians of foraging the sparse mountains. Combined with disease the Persian warmachine was crippled by the time Athens was raised. The Greeks on the other hand had the home advantage of being well supplied, motivated and immune to many of the local diseases."

"Not a single factor can contribute to victory out in the field. Instead it must be a combination of all three that leads to victory. It is with this combination that we now discuss Alexander the Great and his defeat of Darius at Gaugamela…."

/

It was another hour and half of teaching and discussion when Rufus called an end to the class."… And for tomorrow we'll be covering the high medieval period to the Battle of Britenfield with Gustavus Adlofus and the beginning of modern warfare. Class dismissed." As the class stood and started to disperse Adler went up to Tatianna and said." Can I ask you a question?"

The minotauress nodded and answered." Yes Dokter."

Adler smiled as he said." I was wondering if you were doing anything later on between now and class. There's a nearby dungeon that I would like to clear and I think you're the perfect woman to watch my back."

Tatianna raised an eyebrow, she had suspicion as to why he was asking her and not any other student, so she asked in return." Why me and not another classmate?"

Adler's smile turned into a sweeter one." Because I saw you fight alongside Reck back in December. I haven't seen any other of my students fight before, so I would trust someone with my life who I've seen in a fight over someone who I haven't."

She considered this and the fact that he was her teacher before responding." I'll do it, when do you want to meet me and where?"

Adler said." In front of the school in about an hour. I would've suggested we go sooner but I do believe I need to have a conversation with a certain Skaven and her friend." He nodded above Tatianna to the two ratmen, well one a woman and her androgynous friend. He then saw the female smile and grinned back at her.

Tatianna looked back and then then at Adler." Of course Doktor… am I dismissed?" To which Rufus nodded and stepped aside, allowing the Minatuaress to stand and move on down the steps towards the exit.

Adler meanwhile walked up to the Skaven and offered his hand to her." Argo it's been a long time." Argo pulled back her hood and smiled as she took his hand.

"It's been far too long Rufus."

/

After exchanging pleasantries Argo had told Adler that she wanted to talk in private about her visit. Adler had known that she was coming but not quite what was the nature of her visit, so he was interested in why she was here and who her younger friend was and didn't question why she wanted to talk to him alone. As the trio were walking down the hallway to his office Adler asked Argo." So how have you heard the 'Snows of Cragmere'? I've heard it's becoming a top request for bards."

The song, a re-working of the Rains of Castamere, was about the conquest of Cragmere by the dwarfs of Zhufbar. It was becoming a popular song since most players didn't have a music list they had access to, unlike Adler and the other Collectors, so any new music or even covers of the real world was a popular form of entertainment. The irony was not lost on many of the players.

" I've listen to it back in Altdorf, but the translation is a bit off so I don't really follow it as well as I should. But I do like the tune." Argo said and then giggled." I think that's why you westerners like J-Pop, you can't understand a word but your people dance along to it anyway."

"Can't argue that. Back before youtube and high speed internet I used to buy anime dvds just for the theme songs… damn Inuyasha nearly bankrupted my family when the series was 20 bucks a disk." Adler said with a sigh.

" Wow, I knew you were old enough to remember the last millennium, but to remember a time when you didn't have access to youtube…." Argo spoke trailing off.

Adler gave a laugh." Yeah we were still using a turn dial in my home until I was 12."

"Eh 12 then? That would make it 2005, the same year I was born." Argo said matter-a-factly.

Adler was about to reply about being surprised that she was older than he thought when he found himself in front of his office. He turned to her and said." You mind if we talk in private for a few minutes?"

She shook her head." Not at all." Then she turned to her companion." Sorry Rusty but I need to talk to him."

The boy nodded and leaned against the wall. As Argo and Adler entered the office, Rusty took out a Jezzail rifle from his inventory and began maintenance on it. Argo could see the office, which over looked the city, on the wall to the right past the door was a book case and on the left wall was a weapons rack above… Argo blinked." You have an entire army at your command but you still collect miniatures?"

Below the weapons rack, which had swords, hammers, fire arms and other implements of death, were three shelves of miniatures. They were lead mini's, based off of the third edition of Warhammer fantasy. They were mostly Empire though there were also Dwarfs and various Chaos models. The models were organized into regiments and then armies and then each army had a shelf. All were painted to an above average standard.

Adler chuckled as she pointed out the models." Yeah, that was a nice touch the game designers added in. They are somewhat hard to find and not to cheap but worth it in the end when the wargames start." He sat down in his chair behind the desk. Upon his desk was a package with postage from Nuln which he set to the side.

Argo then smirked, her muzzle pulled up enough revealing her teeth." Why do I think that wasn't so much of a problem when you disbanded the Golden Wolves? What with you having enough to open a college all on your own?"

She took her seat as Adler gave his reply with a sly gesture." I don't know what you're getting at. I did earn every copper I ever spent."

Argo's smile didn't leave her face." And if this wasn't a game I'm sure that the authorities wouldn't look into accusations of-." She started to list them off with her right hand." Embezzlement, murder, teaching without credentials, inappropriate relations with a student and a minor."

Adler replied to each one of the accusations with his own count down." Nothing can be proven about embezzling since the treasury of the Golden Wolves was given away. What could be called murder I call self-defense for myself and others. I was college educated and certificates are not needed when in a video game. I haven't started any inappropriate relations with any of my students just yet and aren't you considered legal age in your country? Also aren't you accused of the same things, minus the whole age of consent and student thing?"

Argo's smile lessened." And isn't 18 in your country? Though I see your point. I find it hard to tell the real legal trouble we'll be dealing with if we escape this hell." She relaxed into the chair.

Adler then spoke." And until we destroy the Chaos Gate we deal with the day to day troubles in this mean game."

Argo raised an eyebrow." Mean game? Don't you mean dark and disturbing, after all it was billed that way."

He shook his head and stretched out into his chair." Disturbing this world is, it has dark overtones for sure. It tries to be gothic horror and it would of succeeded, but then a quarter million people found out they were trapped and then things went apeshit crazy. After that the worse from humanity was unleashed from us and unwarranted cruelty reigned."

Argo decided to take a jab at some humor." Are you sure that you weren't a RPG narrator back in the real world?"

Adler snorted." That I'm sure about, though I seem to be used to be around people now. I never really thought I could be a teacher let alone a Witch Hunter while I was putting reports together back in the office." He then smiled." It's not just me either."

Argo gave a small smile at the veiled praise. She then said." I also am hearing about some additional roles being discovered and… things changing In game."

At that Adler nodded." So I take it that the 'real' injuries are true among the Lizardmen?"

"Yes. I got confirmation from an ambassador of Lustria. All the races are now confirmed to have injuries which heal at a 'normal' rate rather than regenerating." She told him.

Adler clicked his tongue." Apparently there are some problems with coding." He then considered his next words." On a different subject I've been hearing that there are some things in the forests around here that sound a bit off. Like these rumors of characters of Hans Minna and Silica of the Forest. Apparently no one knows if they are players or NPCs, but their making an impact with the rumor mill."

"Well maybe Hans is or isn't a player, but I do know whether Silica is a player or not." Argo gave a sly smile." Of course that is a monetary secret."

Adler gave a smirk, feeling her information broker tendencies coming out." And one which I do not wish to pay for." He then took a breath changing the subject once more." So how are things in the south?"

She shrugged." Things are have stabilized on the borders. Bretonnia has its rebels but its firmly under the thumb of their 'King'. They and the Wood Elves are keeping to themselves. Marianburg is playing the free states vs Averland. While Averland has itself is just biding its time with its army. Apparently Kibaou has got even more greenskins, like a thousand players at this point." Then she was silent for a moment.

"Then there is Skavenblight. The clan wars have died down but there are some serious issues left un-resolved…." She bit her lip, seemingly becoming more nervous as she fidgeted in the chair.

Adler sensed this and asked, his voice calm." Argo what's wrong?"

"It's the children. You know about the orphanages in most of the capitols? Well they won't work with the Skaven or Greenskins because of their safe zones are off." She looked back to the door and then back at him." That's why I am here, I'm hoping that you can take in Rusty. He's a good kid, he's been doing some work for my guild but he shouldn't be put into more danger than he is now."

At that Adler shook his head." Argo I can't take in a kid. I mean I never really liked them or looked after them. Not to mention I've got a full time job."

"He is from your home state and county." Argo said. Adler then raised an eyebrow.

"And you think I know him?" He asked. A questioning look on his face.

She shook her head." No. I think you know his family though. His mother is Samantha Essex, of the Essex Arms Company."

At that Adler's face dropped all sense of warmth and confusion, instead it was a rather flat expression which went with the next word to escape his lips." What."


	6. Hochland Teachings: First Tests

**A/N: See first chapter for disclaimer. Here is the conclusion to the two parter. I hope you enjoy it.**

**Reply to Reviewers**

**Coronadomontes: Thank you for your support!**

/

_Hergig, Capitol of Hochland  
May 2 2023, 1PM_

Tatianna Afendivkov was twirling a strand of her blonde hair outside of the main college building. The twenty five year old Minotauress was sitting on a bench in the mid spring day. She was enjoying the day while she had time in between classes and what her professor had planned for her. She leaned back and closed her dark blue eyes as she remembered what she was before she had put on the Nervegear.

She remembered being about a foot shorter and being human. How only a year ago now she had graduated from Moscow University. How she larp'ed in the woods, throwing beat downs on other players with her wooden sword and got away because of her poppa's connections when their injuries were server enough. How she was a little princess who grew taller than her father and was set to take advantage of her parents position in the oligarch as a timber king.

But fate it seemed threw a wrench into her own and family's plans and in this new life she needed to make her own new life.

Life in her first few weeks were hard for her as it was for most of the other players, though with the specter of genocide on her faction. In addition to learning how to work in a group of suddenly cloven hoofed players who had to relearn how to walk, she had to adjust to her new body. She was tall and had muscle strength back in the real world, but with the additional height and bulk her challenge was unique. She could rip bots from limb and limb, but what she had to learn quickly was subtly. Given she was more or less a bull in a china shop whenever she visited an Empire village, she picked up some grace skills faster than it took her to properly learn how to swing her great axe.

After her initial few days she then survived the Night of the Long Horns where her first human kills took place. Tatianna then found herself one of the top fighters for a band of refugees and eventually into the personal guard of Reck. Now here she was a Lieutenant in his army of beastmen with a good chance she could be a commander after her class here.

That led Tatianna to her teacher, or as he called himself Herr Doktor Rufus Adler. She perfectly knew why he asked her to go dungeon crawling with her. She could see in Rufus stance and his tone of voice what he wanted and what he wanted was her.

In her real appearance she could be called beautiful as in an amazon sort of way, while when she joined WAO her appearance was that of a male minotaur. But as it turned out that mirror item forced the game to compromise her two appearances. She became a female and her form was that of muscular if busty woman, while the details were that of a minotaur where her entire body was covered in soft fur, she grew a tail and her face was that of a half-human and half-bovine face that had its own sort of feminum beauty to it.

Others had seen it, but she had deferred their advances and kicked the asses of others who didn't take the hint. Reck didn't care either way about her appearance and never tried her luck with him, if he did though she wouldn't stop him since he was her commander and had the power of her future in his hands as a beastwoman general. Tatianna thought she was clear of being manipulated from positions of power and she could use her own position to force others to do what she desired.

Then there was the good Herr Doktor. She knew that Rufus had the future of being a full fledge commander in Recks army, she needed to learn more than just experience could teach her. She needed to learn how to plan campaigns, keep to objectives and not just survive battles or crack skulls. The Imperial War College was too expensive for Reck to spend on her. But at the same time he decided to grant her some more money to attend the introductory class to help her ease into the full blown military class.

She needed to pass these classes or else she would feel the wraith of Reck for wasting all of those gold coins. That's why she needed to play along and go with whatever Rufus had planned. She would push her luck and try to stop him if he went to far with her… but in the end she needed her power more than her pride so she would put up with him for the next month. She learned that from her time in the real world. Pride and honor were fine as a façade but real power comes from sacrificing those morals for both yourself and your family.

She was in her thoughts when she heard the leather soles of boots along with the scrap of claws on the cobblestone come to a stop before her. Tatianna opened her eyes and saw Rufus in full Witch Hunter regalea, from the silver tipped stakes on a leather bandoleer across his chest and the various charms for protection against the deamonic. Next to him was Argo, she still had similar weapons to when Tatianna saw her back six months ago at the meeting, though they were of clearly better quality. Finally there was their third companion, another skaven but this time a cloaked boy who carried a Jezzail longer than he was tall across his shoulders.

Tatianna stood as Rufus spoke, a smile that looked forced upon his face." Well Tatianna it looks like we a couple of guests along for our raid. Argo you've met and the boy is Rusty. He's the son of a friend of mine IRL."

She nodded in understanding, though she was surprised by the addition of the boy to their party. Argo she could understand since her and Adler had a more than professional relationship at one point. But who was this child? Tatianna though didn't speak her concerns, instead she said." Sounds good. How do we start?"

Rufus then told her. "There is a burnt down farm about 2 miles to the west of the city. That's where the quest begins."

/

_2 1/2 miles west of Hergig  
2:13 PM_

The party of mismatched adventurers could see the cave from their position on a rise in the thick woodlands of Hochland. Rufus looked through a telescope and could clearly make out the bandits camp below. There were four bandits that could be seen in front of the cave, where a small clearing had been made. Off to the side of the clearing was a tent along with a small chest and a roasting rabbit over a fire. The bandits themselves were a ragged bunch of humans with leather armor that looked almost maintained, though the state of their clothes, which were little better than moldy rags, told a different story as to how much they cared about their appearance. Their weapons were the best quality's about them, three carried wheel lock pistols, one in addition to his long bow and another had a harquebus all the men had swords at their sides. In other terms they were the typical generated bandit mobs that peppered the Empire to serve as enemies to keep the players occupied.

This group had apparently burnt down a farm and had taken the farmers livestock and all his valuables after they raided him, killing his family in the process. The rewards were a couple of dozen pieces of silver or maybe a few gold pieces before the sale of any equipment taken from the bandits. Then the players karma would change meter depending on if they returned the valubles for a small reward of a hint to a bigger mid-level quest which would tilt the karma meter into the blue ever so slightly or just to sell the rewards which pushed the karma meter into the red. After the completion of the quest the farm would reset after three hours for the next group of adventurers to take it on.

After describing what he saw Rufus then asked the party, his eyes on the minotauress." Alright ladies and gent's. There are typically 12 to 15 bandits in this cave and a mid-boss gang leader, I have a plan for dealing with them but I am willing to listen to anything you come up with?" Tatianna knew who that question was directed to.

She pointed a finger at the clearing at one of the outer most bandits patrolling the area." You and Rusty kill the bandits with the bow and musket. Then I'll arrgo the last two and… uh Argo can end them. After they are dead you take over for the rest of the quest."

Tatianna saw Rufus crack a grin." Good." He drew a long barreled pistol from its sheath." You two start moving into position, I'll leave the details to you which direction you two want to go. While me and Rusty will give a signal when we pop those two bandits."

"he must be compensating for something." Tatianna thought as she looked at the exquisitely made flintlock pistol. Its barrel was near double length of an average pistol. The barrel was engraved with a hunting scene and the brass parts had leaf decorations to them. The most prominent indication of it being costumed made was the flint lock mechanism, its hammer being a stylized warhammer and frizzen being a shield.

Rufus then motioned to Rusty and said." Follow me." The skaven boy then followed the witch hunter into the thicket leading to the cave.

Tatianna then turned to Argo." I'll go left, you go right of the clearing?"

The rat woman nodded her head saying." Sure thing." She then scampered off on her own.

Tatianna then sighed and went off to the left of the clearing after walking through the forest. Unlike in the city where she stuck out like a sore thumb and her bulk gave her a clumsiness when maneuvering through buildings, the forest was like home. She was able to walk on her hooves through the undergrowth without making a sound with only the clink of her heavy armor and chainmail skirt declaring her presence. When she was younger she heard tales of wolves and monsters inhabiting the woods, she was scared as a child. Then as she became a teenager and eventually a larper she grew used to the forest, though there were still the fear of the unknown in the back of her mind. But now, in a game of all places, she had lost her fears of the forest and instead had become a monster the stories told of.

She was walking to the side of the clearing and then heard a shout From Rufus." Accusation!" She turned her head to where the shout came from, then head first a loud boom of an Imperial pistol with white smoke. Then she heard the crack of the Jezzail, its thick green smoke emitting from a tree and the trail of its bullet being a line of faint green. Both shots met their targets, Rufus caught the bandit with the bow in the center of the chest and Rusty's blew out the handgunners throat.

Even as the two bots fell Tatianna was running towards the clearing, letting loose a bestial howl to gain the attention the bots. The A.I. recatagorized their target from the Lone witch hunter to the larger threat of Tatianna. The two bandits drew their pistols as she raised up her steel great axe. As she charged she could see a blur of brown running to the bandits from behind. The two bandits fired at the charging Minotauress, both shots though missed her by mere inches. Argo stabbed her retractable metal claws through one of the bandits backs, then using one of her feet to kick the dead mob off the blades. Tatianna took care of the last bandit when she brought her great axe down on the bandit, from over her right shoulder she brought it down to the left. The mob was sliced in half, from shoulder to hip, the top half of the body falling to the ground as blood erupted from the standing portion before it joined the other half on the ground.

Almost at the same moment Tatianna and Argo then wiped their blades on the grass. It took a moment for Tatianna to realize that they were syncorized accidently and looked at Argo for a moment. The skaven woman looked up as well and said." Jinx." Tatianna gave a smile in return.

Emerging from the forest was Rufus who was sheathing the pistol, a moment later followed by Rusty who was doing a difficult task of reloading his jezzail while on the move. As Tatianna watched the boy had a method that made the reloading seem easy. He just tore open the cartage with his incisors; he took the bullet into his mouth as he poured the powder into the barrel and then spit the bullet into the barrel. He tapped the butt of the rifle onto the ground so that it would settle. As Rufus began to speak Rusty used a curled powder horn to pour the crushed warp stone into the pan.

"Good showing folks. Now then when we head in we need to split up into two groups since the cave splits up. Then joins back up at the mid boss room." After Rufus spoke Rusty started to rifle through the chest, Argo also was taking loot from her kill.

"How are we to split up the group?" Tatianna asked him.

"Rusty and Argo will team up and head to the right. That alright?" He asked Argo.

"Sounds good." She replied as she shifted through her inventory.

"Good. Then we'll go left." He addressed Tatianna.

She lifted her axe over her shoulder and said." Lead the way." Though unsaid she added.' You've had plenty of time with me infront.'

Rufus didn't seem to pick it up and instead said." Righto." Then he whistled as he entered the cave, with Tatianna following a few steps behind him.

It took a few moments but as soon as they were out of echo range from the entrance Rufus lost his silly whistle. He slowed his steps so that he was by Tatianna's side and began to spoke." You should know the truth as to why I brought you here."

She rolled her eyes." I have an idea." Tatianna said, a sarcastic note making it through the translator.

Rufus chuckled." If I wanted your tail that bad then we would still be in the forest up against a tree." His laughter dropped as he continued." No my dear I want to talk to you about the future."

"What future would that be?" She asked." As a student? As your lover? As your-"

He cut her off as he spoke." As a future commander of The Conclave of Light."

That stopped Tatianna in her tracks." Conclave of What?" She asked her hackles raised.

Rufus then fill her in." Eventually when the problems of the Empire are settled, for good or ill your people will still have to deal with the future wars to come. But your faction won't be alone… I can't go into the details about the future plans yet, that's for Reck to tell you. I just want to talk to you about the near future so your prepped for the storm that will come."

Tatianna asked him." What storm are you talking about?"

"I want you to think of the two places that, if destroyed, will allow for people to escape." He told her.

Tatianna then replied at first sounding slightly pissed at the idiotic question." That's easy, The Grand Temple of Sigmar and the Chaooohhh…." Then her voice dropped as it hit her." The Chaos Gate, which is through tens of thousands players who are dipping towards the red of their karma meter." She finished looking at Rufus.

Rufus nodded." That's why we're here." He then cracked a smile." Either here or at some restaurant with fine wines and pleasant small talk. But then again butter knives and forks aren't skills we need grinding." He began to walk once more down the tunnel.

She began to follow him." So you do this extra talk for all your students, or just me?" Tatianna asked.

" As the class continues each student in it will have some words of wisdom and be tested on what they learned." Rufus answered her.

" So what does the siege of Alesia have anything to do about clearing out some bandit mobs?" She added.

Rufus looked as if he was thinking for a second, but his answer showed he had been asked or asked himself that very same question." Absolutely nothing. These lessons are for Military Thought and Action, not 101. Though if you want to make comparisons between the bandits and Gallic tribesmen be my guest."

After a few moments, during which time they were approaching a door, Tatianna asked a new question." So, what is the story behind Rusty?" Rufus looked back up to her and went 'hmm?'

"If Rusty is the son of a friend of yours, then why is he with Argo and not your friend?" She elaborated.

Rufus stopped at the door and leaned against the door way as he started to tell his story." Rusty's mother wasn't interested in WAO, but got him the game any way. Her name is Samantha Essex and we were friends back when I was a home schooler. We got to know each other when our parents would meet along with the other home school family's in our areas for selecting books for the year. We got along pretty good and even found a similar interest."

Tatianna leaned against the door frame opposite of Rufus." And that was?"

He then smiled widely." Warfare, her family owns and operates a company that reproduces and ships black powder small arms. We would get to test out the flintlocks, learn how they worked, cleaned them and then worked on school work together." The smile dropped." Then we went our separate ways after we got our GED's. She went to her college and I went to mine."

Rufus then shook his head." Right enough of Sam, back to Rusty. Any more questions about him before we start to pummel some bandits in on the otherside?"

"Yes. He had 6 months to find you, so why does he show up now? He may be boy, but kids are killers in this game. How sure are you that you want him in the same group as you? There are plenty of people that want to see you dead." Tatianna looked… somewhat concerned for Rufus as she finished speaking. She was starting to enjoy his company, partly from his frankness and also from his time to time, almost chipper attitude.

Rufus chuckled openly and tapped his brow." With these peepers nothing gets pass me."

"Peepers?" Tatianna said, not familiar with the slang.

" Eyes." He then closed them and after a short murmur which sounded almost like a prayer he opened them. His blue eyes had changed color and shape, the iris's glowing yellow and shape like that of twin tailed comet." Your name is Tatianna, you are currently level 26. Your karma meter reads that you are in the green. Your top stat is your great weapon skill." The eyes then returned to normal.

Tatianna nodded, her expression saying that she was impressed with his deduction." Is that a class based skill?"

Surprisingly he shook his head." Accusation is an automatic skill all Witch Hunters have. The skill I used was the Analysis passive skill, the kind players use to see health bars, I just managed to boost it a wee bit beyond." Rufus then slapped his forehead." Ah there I go rambling on again. It's hard to believe back IRL that I was so quiet and… I'm rambling again."

Rufus gave a chuckle and Tatianna couldn't help but giggle at his actions. He sighed and said." Rusty is a good kid, he's been living in Skavenblight and working as a merc for Clan Fleakit. When he heard about kids being sent to orphanage's he went to Argo and told her who he was. Guess he didn't want to get lumped up with a bunch of kids/ Now he is here and I'm considering adop… I mean taking him in." He then looked back to the direction of the original entrance." I'm just considering at this point after watching him in action."

From within the cave they could hear the echoing crack of the jezzail. Apparently Argo and Rusty had found another group of mobs and were dispatching them.

Rufus then turned back to her and smiled, stepping away from the door." Want to do the honors?" Rufus drew a second pistol from under his coat. Unlike the long barreled pistol he used earlier, this weapon was a six barreled flint lock revolver. Its barrel was braced with metal and wood above and below, underneath the bottom barrel brace was a seven inch long blade. As he pulled the flintlock back the barrels moved, some powder falling into the pan.

Tatianna moved to the side of the door where the handle was, she faced him as she raised her right hoof up." How gentlemanly letting the lady get the door." They both cracked a smile. Tatianna kicked back at the door, the wooden portal blasted backwards.

Rufus then ran into the room and instead of taking the bandits on face to face, he went to the right of the door. Rufus shot one of the bandits in the chest and then turned to continue walking to the last two bandits. The two mobs then fired their pistols at him, one bullet embedding itself into a barrel next to Rufus's leg and the other hit his left arm. His arm went limp as blood and gore exploded from the flesh, twisting his body. Paying it little attention Rufus righten himself continued to walk and then started to gun down the mobs, looking at them in the eye. He fired four more time, hitting each bandit in the chest twice near the center of the heart. The last bandit was crawling and trying to stand when the Witch Hunter pressed the blade to the back of his head and finished him off with a final thrust into his neck.

Tatianna walked in as Rufus sheathed his revolver." Can you still fight?" She asked, looking at that nasty bullet wound.

He shook his limp shoulder, then said." I'm good. Just give me a minute." He then took off his coat and then shirt, exposing his blood soaked arm. Tatianna saw the bullet embedded in the bone , the blood slowly clotting. Rufus then reached to his wound with his good hand and started to speak." Sigmar, my lord and protector. Be my shade in the sun and my drink in the desert." His hand then started to glow as did his fingers, his digits pushing and probing the wound. Rufus winced as he gripped the bullet, blood beginning to flow once more." Sigmar show me the path in the darkness with your light." Rufus then pulled the bullet from his arm with a pop. The wound glowing and closing, the light in the wound dimming then disappearing." Thank you lord." He finished the prayer.

Rufus then turned to Tatianna and flicked the bullet to her. She caught it with her left hand and looked at the deformed projectile." I doubt there is going to be trophy of worth to be taken here for the Chaos Gods. So a little memento of our raid will do."

She pocketed the bullet and asked." Can I have the mid boss then? At least give me that after you just walked in and killed those mobs."

"Oh of course." He started to put his clothes back on." I must admit though I am sorry that today's trip has turned out to be a bit of a dud."

He then drew and started to reload his revolver, flipping the barrels out of the gun. As he did so Tatianna drew her axe and rested on it." Why do I think you wanted to mix business with pleasure?" She asked.

Rufus chuckled as he flicked the gun closed." That you are." He then sheathed the pistol once more." Also, I'm not one to use my position to get a girl into position. I much prefer using my seductive wiles." He laughed out loud." You can trust me on that… some of my friends not so much."

She laughed as well and lifted her axe up and put it over her shoulder." When we have some time alone we'll see how well your 'seductive wiles' work… you must of picked that line up from some trashy novel." She continued on through the room to the other side.

Rufus smirked and thought.' Close darling, it's from the Lusty Argonian Maid Part 3.' He followed her along till they reached the mid-boss door, where Argo and Rusty were already waiting. The top of the door being see through.

He waved at them and asked." Got any idea how many mobs are on the other side besides the mid boss?"

Rusty lifted up a paw which had 3 fingers extended, Argo spoke at the same time." Two of them are regular bunch of bandits, pistols and swords. The Mid-Boss has a brace of pistols and a Zewi-Hander. One of the mobs has a blunder buss."

Rusty spoke for the first time in his squeaky voice." I'll take care of him with Jezebel." He shook his hand rifle back and forth at his side for emphasize.

Adler nodded." Right, Tatianna will take care of the mid-boss. Argo and I will take care of the run of the mill mobs and Rusty here will get the blunderbuss dude. Y'all ready?"

The trio nodded and gave other affirmations that they were." Right then, clear the way for Rusty to line up his shot and Tatianna to kick in the door. I want to get the loot and stab my friends in the back… ur, sorry that's the munchkin in me acting up." At their blank stares he shook a head." Just a reference to a card game." Then he thought to himself.' Use more recognizable references in the future.'

The party did as they were told with Tatianna moving up and Rusty getting onto one knee in front of her. Rufus moved to the left side of the door, allowing enough room for Tatianna to move next to him when the door open. Argo went next the right side of the door and readied her claws.

Tatianna then kicked in the door and moved to the side of the door next to Rufus. The bandit's it seemed were more prepared then the other ones and the Blunderbuss armed mob had his weapon pointed at the door, as soon as Tatianna was out of the door way the mob fired. The birdshot like projectiles missed Rusty for the most part, but one bb hit his left ear and another blew his hood back. The boy fired his shot through and found the mob in the jaw and exited through his brain.

As the mob fell the other three charged into the room. Argo lived up to her name by swiftly running so that she was near a blur and used her acrobatic skill to leap and tear out the throat of a mob. Tatianna followed next and charged the mid-boss brigand. Rufus was last through the door and quickly shot the last low level mob in the head with his long barreled pistol.

The brigand leader fired a pistol with his left hand at Tatianna, the shot embedding itself in a steel plate of armor around her stomach. The blow would of slowed a human, but due to her race and speed she managed to ignore it. The brigand then brought his zewi-hander up into a high guard to defend himself. Tatianna brought her axe down on his head but with a turn of his blade and using his left hand as a brace he blocked the blade.

They then separated and the brigand lowered his sword and lunged at Tatianna. The Minotauress then swayed to her right just enough to miss the blade. She brought her left arm down and pressed the blade against her armor, holding it there but cutting into her left bicep. She then swung her axe from her right hand and hit him with the broad side. That blow knocked the bandit leader to the ground. Tatianna then took her axe into both hands and brought it down on the brigand's neck, separating his head from his body.

Tatianna then gripped a tuff of hair of the Brigand's head; she lifted it up and bellowed out." I grant this head to the gods of the beasts!" The head started to dissipate as the gift was seemingly ignored. After the head disappeared she open her menu and sighed." Only a single prestige point." She closed the menu.

She turned to Rufus." How do we divide the loot?" As she looked at him she could also see that Rusty had walked up and was reloading his musket. She could see that without his hood he had brown hair with bright orange streaks of colored hair which could very well of been the source of his name. But the eyes were what stopped her, those blue eyes, she had seen eyes like that before much like 6 months ago…

She saw Rufus, his brim was below his eyes as he was reloading his pistol. A bullet in his mouth as he pushed the ramrod down the barrel of the pistol. He spit the bullet down the barrel and said." The boy gets to choose what he wants. Then we'll see about heading back."

He smiled and holstered the pistol after ramming down the bullet." The day's not over yet. I need to find an apartment for Rusty and you need to see about starting the worst month of your life." He looked up at her and his smile widen to a smirk." If you thought the last war was bad, you havn't seen what I got prepped for ya."


	7. Path of Glory: The Altar of Battle

**A/N: See first chapter for disclaimer. In addition I have to add in I don't seek to profit from Corb Lund's Horse Soldier, if you can find the quote. Hey folks, here is the new chapter of WAO returning to our favorite chaos scum and everyone's favorite Gary Stu (Strangely enough a canon character. So pump yourselves up and review ladies and gents. Because every time you give me a review it helps push me further and further and if it's to criticize then I welcome it gladly because it improves your future enjoyment of the story! You'll also get a shout out like this kind individual below. **

**Reply to reviewers:**

**Coronadomontes: Thanks!**

**/**

_Northern Naggaroth Lands  
May 18 2023, 6AM_

The sun was just rising in the east, but even as it did so its light did not touch the earth so much as turn the clouds above from a pitch black to a dark grey. The chaos horde's marched on regardless of the light. The four armies of a combined total of over 50,000 bots converged onto one location. The Altar of Ultimate Darkness.

With 8,000 bots The Worlds Destruction was the smallest army, but had over 1,500 ogres and trolls marching in its ranks to supplement its Khorne Marked Marauders. The Black Death stood at 13,000, it was a mixed force of class types but every one of its soldiers and players had the Mark of Nurgle and the entire army was obscured by a cloud of flies. The largest army was the most rag tag with absolutely no order to it was the Delights of Decadence, most were Slaanesh Marked though with a fair bit of Tzeencht and Khorne soldiers as well, they numbered around 21,000 bots and had lumbering monstrosity's to aid them. Finally there was the 3rd wave with 10,000 bots, they were evenly divided into 5 smaller armies called brigades and besides The Black Death showed the most discipline. All together there were only 3,000 chaos players present for this battle.

While each of the armies marching towards the altar was a chaos horde, there was a fifth army of Dark Elves. They were a mix of a few score players and the NPC defenders of the Altar. All together there was 5,000 of the sons and daughters of Naggaroth there to defend their lands. Some of the defending players were there as patriots who wanted to defend their new home land, others were mercenaries and still more saw this a great opportunity to grind their skills in the coming battle. The NPCs were there to defend and at the behest of Malakith, the king of the dark elves and would not step back lest they were to be sacrificed or forced into one of the slave galleys.

Kirito was a mercenary for this battle, he was here alone while his guild made their way and money back in the Empire lands making a living protecting caravans. He was here to grind his experience, make money and… and to distance himself from his employer. He liked his job back across the seas, in fact he liked Lizbeth and the Silver Seekers and their human allies. But he found himself liking Lizbeth 'to much' and he thought that she was thinking the same way about him. He couldn't get to close to her… he just couldn't or else he would lose sight that he needed to survive this game and nothing else.

On his journey back to Naggaroth he stopped in in the High Elf Lands of Loren. Things were peaceful there, though they had problems with bandits, but so did almost every other country. He also learned of their being talk between the more powerful guilds of the High Elves and the Dark Elves signing an article of alliance, though they were still in talks at the moment. He also heard that Asuna was now the captain of Hoeth Masters, one of the more powerful guilds, along with The Caledor Riders lead by a woman named Sakuya, and representatives of the High Elves. He didn't meet here but he silently wished her best of luck in her own realm.

Now he was here at the pay of The Northern Guard. A medium sized guild of players who viewed this, rocky, barren and inhospitable land, their own home. Their leaders were a Sorceress and a Blackguard ranked dark elf commander. The Blackguard was impossible to read, he was completely covered in black armor, even his head was enclosed in a helmet, only some green hair being seen. He just used the name Sig. The dark elf sorceress was a rather chubby girl and had opted to wear the scandalously light loin cloth and bra combination that showed much skin, her name was Kadi.

Kirito was stationed on the eastern portion of the narrowing pass to the Altar along with his 50 corsairs and 20 crossbowmen. 'Welp I hope this better be worth the 100 gold.' Kirito thought as he watched the chaos armies start to converge on the altar and then forming up battle lines against themselves.

/

Krutz may have been the been the head the Third Wave, but the actual leg work of his organization was done by his sub commanders. He had been forced to assign the roles of treasurer, quartermaster, land manager and grand commander of the army to someone else. That someone else is someone who he had a mix of respect and hatred for. Gestalt or as he licked to be called Gerry.

' I really do hate that man.' Kurtz reflected as he readied his barded chaos steed.' But I can't do this battle without my Warchief.'

That was a title that Gerry had come up with, apparently he had fulfilled all the requirements of being a warchief from stealing his enemies horses to then slitting the throats of his enimies silently. All he really needed now, or so he said that he needed was approval from his tribal leaders when he got out of the game and he could take the real mantel of being a warchief. Till then he had settled with his horned marauder helmet being customized with a feather head dress, who's feathers came from the body of the sorcerer of tzeencht he had slew with his spear.

Currently Gerry was talking to the 4 other generals of the guild, including his Gerry's favorite Wynona. Krutz really could care less what happened between his people, so long as they did what he wanted and didn't interfere in his 'fun'. Oh yes he had fun in this game, the only problem being he missed casing pain in his victims, watching it in their eyes as their life slipped away. He still got that from the bots but not from the actual humans, for which he was ever disappointed. Though flaying was a good sport especially now he could keep his victims alive longer with health potions.

Gerry then finished and cantered up to Krutz on his mount, a fanged chaos steed." Krutz. Your choice, you want to be in the center of the line or go straight for the Altar on the right?" Gerry asked. Besides his helmet and heavy boots, the warchief had a shield for armor and nothing more. Upon his chest was the mark of khorne, glowing bright in his skin.

"Can we break through the center? Krutz asked. In comparison to Gerry's almost non-existent armor, Krutz armor was a prime example of a Chaos Chosen Armor. His Chaos Plate Armor was costumed made by a Dwarf from Zharr Naggrund. The plates were as black as night with gold emblazoning on the edges. The faces of leering, jovial, mad and anguished faces were at the joints of his elbow and knees, their noses ending in sharp spikes. His face mask upon his helmet was that of a flayed man crying out in agony. His shield was a shifting scene of torture and brutality, that if an enemy saw at the right moment could see their own destiny as one of those tortured.

" It's going to be a quagmire and I don't know if you'll be able to bust through the center. But that is where the blood will be spilt the most, but if you are looking to get that Mark…." Krutz wasn't listening to Gestalt. He was looking off at his benefactor, the cloaked figure was barely visible but at the same time Krutz still knew it was the seer… his guide to this point with over 700 guild mates. He sensed the eyes of the gods on his next battle.

" I will take the center with the Undvivided. You do whatever you have to, but I'm charging towards the Altar the first chance I get. If our _friend_ is there then all the better. Dismissed Gestalt." Krutz then rode away to his Undivided and drew his deamon infused axe, flames licking the blade.

He viewed the battle field before him. Beyond the armies converging on the bottle neck, he could see the dark elves formed up to protect their land. He could see the black ness of their army with specks of gray, white or purplish skin of their witch elves and warlocks were visible. Up along the cliff sides were the reaper bolt throwers and here and there were a few hydra's being pulled along by beastmasters. Behind them a great rise of black onyx over looked the valley with a statue and boiling cauldron of blood overlooking all. That was the Altar, that was the destination and that was the objective of all these armies. He was called here by his sponsor and he would not avoid his sponsors call.

But before his destiny was claimed, before he stood upon the Altar and before he could cut his way through the elves. He had to face the hordes of chaos with his own men as chattel. He cared nothing about them, only that they get him to his destination.

Before him The Black Death was turning their attention to him and his men, while still screening to make sure they were not flanked by the Delights of Destruction. He couldn't see the individual bots or players from the flies, but at the same time he didn't need to understand that a lot of them were marauders from the blistered and puss ridden skin, sickly horses and bug like mutations.

Krutz then raised his axe on high and shouted, his booming with enhanced sound so his entire army could hear him ." Prepare yourselves Third Wave. Tonight we will meet our destiny! Tonight we take our first steps to freedom. Tonight, most of all, we will spill the blood of our enemies!" There was an enthusiastic shout from ten thousand throats in return. Then he pointed to The Black Death with his axe." Fire!" A battery of Hell Cannons fired, their shell's roaring with the scream of souls overhead.

/

Once upon a time Ferrell had a life. He had a good stable job, he had a wife and he had time to build an army of miniatures. He lost that all the day he put the nerve gear on. Since then he had lost his real name, his memories of his old life and most of his sanity. He was marauder now, one of hundreds in The Worlds Destruction. He fought when he had to, recruited when he needed to, clear headed when he hated to.

He was in the mob of marauders, a mix of his own and someone else's and they were moving towards a fight. He didn't really care what or who he was fighting, just so long as he stayed with his mobile orgy. He got the Weird Root and aphrodisiacs from the party organizers and that was one of the few bright spots in his life right now. He snorted some chopped up weird root and felt his mind loving the dopamine being released. He looked around and saw an orgy starting up and considered joining in, but at the same time he was supposed to be fighting at the moment so he instead looked around for them.

He saw their forces, well the files and started to move towards them. He would get more drugs for doing a good job killing. So he led his men towards them, the tide of flesh surrounding him moving along with him. That was how he first joined his guild. He was wondering aimlessly in a haze, saw the horde and just joined the Delights of Decadence. Those days, all those days that he has been fighting for them was a haze combined into one experience of blood and war.

It wasn't just marauders moving mindlessly, but also spawn, mutilators and slaughter brutes crashed and knocked down bots by their dozens. It was a horde, if not quite undead, if not quite full of monsters it could be confused with zombies. Even as the horde moved to the fight The Black Death it was dying from a myriad of ranged fire and spells.

/

Kirito watched as the bolt throwers fired their long range load of single shots. But that was it, around two dozen 8 foot long bolts sailed out at the Delights of Decadence and The Worlds Destruction. Because of the size of their targets, both because of the thousands of bots and scores of huge monsters the bolts were able to pierce and kill most of the smaller bots when they hit while the monsters were unaffected. Only a around a hundred bots were killed, but there were tens of thousands of more marauders and other humans. At a bolt every 15 seconds and at half a mile… Kirito worked out the math and found that if it was just the long bolts then it would be 2,000 bots before they came into contact with the Dark Elves.

But the Dark Elves were not relying only on martial prowess alone. As the Chaos Armies met on the battlefield and started to slaughter each other, they did most of the killing themselves. He could see the bots and the few brave or insane front line commanders kill each other. Spells flew back and forth, some ate away the enemies, others forced them to danced, still others applied buffs and debuffs to the bots and players. Then there was the monsters themselves, who carved whole sections of armies.

He watched as the monsters were swarmed by companies of marauders or cohorts of Chaos Warriors. To the titanic struggle of the Sluaghterbrutes and Mutilartors fighting each other with claws and tentacles, nearby soldiers being driven away in terror or by the presence of the insane creatures. Then there were the smaller, but just as epic fights between champions and the monsters one to one battles which he couldn't help but respect. He noted the champions who were not swatted away or didn't die, marking the ones who defeated the beasts for those he had to kill or pass off to some other soldier.

But despite the bloodshed the armies sloughed on, as they neared the dark elves they came under a new onslaught of death. The reaper bolt throwers switched from single bolts to their multi-shot fusillade of smaller spears, these didn't lance into the enemy lines but at the same time each they stuck a human sized target it was a kill shot while with the larger monster they became like pin cushions. Yet still fire balls and bolts of darkness flew from sorceresses hands.

Kirito felt a buff spell hit him, he saw a translucent shield form around his body from the ward save and knew the same was happening to his bots. His Dark Shards started to fire automatically into the horde of nearing chaos warriors since they moved into range.' Note for later. Get some Human or Dwarf engineers to come with me the next time I go on vacation' If he had a cannon or one of their more wild machines then the kills his allied army would have would raise their kills by hundreds or thousands. Cannon balls could bounce fairly far after all. But then there was the problem that pretty much all the cannons and warmachines were slow and heavy, making them difficult to use for a mobile army.

He then drew his twin swords and prepared to meet The Worlds Destruction.

/

Krutz roared as he plowed through the file covered marauders. His body was covered in gore and puss from those who he had faced, over twenty marauders, eight chaos warriors and two players and he carved into the more elite, player based lines. He faced down the maggots and reared his horse, the beast blowing fire from its nostrils before it's razor sharp front hooves kicked a player to the ground.

"Face your doom!" He shouted with a furry before activating his axe's special ability, from the metal deamon head's on the back of the axe. From the deamons mouth fire vomited forth and doused the players in flames as he swept it back and forth amongst their ranks. They didn't pull back quickly, but at the same time they did so as their flesh was scorched. They seemed relatively unaffected, maybe at best 10% of their HP bars went down, but it was fear he was seeking, fear to break them.

Stepping forth was a gigantic player, his body was swollen and the flesh that strained against his rusty armor was pulsing with yellow pus. Upon his head was a fly helmet which, from the mouth piece, appeared to fit the disgusting head below. In his hands he held an great axe which was orange with rust and glowed a sickly green, dripping the same disgusting fluid as was on his flesh. When he spoke, he did so with seeming a thousand little voices made into one sound." Faaccceee Thheee Bbblllack Dddeeaaath."

Krutz saw the challenge, he head it and most of all he relished it." Accepted!" He then spurred his horse at the Chaos Champion and readied to slash at the son of Nurgle. Faster than the body could seem to move the champion brought his axe upwards in a diagonal slash and took the head off the Chaos Steed in one powerful blow. Krutz leapt out of the saddle and used his skills to roll onto his knee.

Around him the battle stopped as his men and The Black Death's slowed to watch the duel taking place. The Nurgle Champion twirled his gore covered axe in his hands and then raised it above his head and brought it down with the strength of half a dozen men onto Krutz. The Undivided Champion used his shield and braced against the attack. In that moment his shield was broken, crumpling from under the force of the great axe. But in the breaking of the shield he was saved since the great axe didn't continue on and kill him.

The breaking of the shield allowed Krutz to move and attack the Nurgle Champion. He brought his one handed axe down through the fleshy left thigh of the champion then pulled it out. But even though it sunk deep into the diseased flesh the warrior hardly noted it and instead twisted his body around to bring down another blow with a throaty laugh. Krutz attacked the great axe and swatted it away.

The Nurgle Champion recovered and then readied another blow, Lifting the axe up for a powerful horizontal swing. Krutz saw an opportunity, not to attack he was to fast and already in line to make his attack. Krutz fell onto his back as the champion brought his weapon down. Krutz spiked knee made contact with the gut of the champion, impaling him as he brought the swing down. Krutz then dodged the blow by moving his head to the right, the axe broke and sunk into the earth below, the black rock shattering.

"Yoouu caaan'tt stttttoop mmmeee thhhiiiissssss wwwwaaayyyy." The Nurgle champion chuckled, phlegm falling onto Krutz's helmet.

"No." Krutz then held onto champion's right arm with his left arm and then readied his axe." But this will!" He then swung his axe hard at the son of Nurgle's neck. The flaming axe sizzled the champion's fatty neck as the flesh was split and bone broke. As the champion was decapitated Krutz watched with glee as the many eyes of the follower of Nurgle expanded in fear. As the head fell off, from the mouth and now open throat a thousand screams died off as the player was killed.

Krutz then pushed the dead warrior off and then stood to face his enemies. He looked at them and just snorted carelessly as he felt a new gift being bestowed upon his body." You are too easy to kill, fucking noobs." He then went back to the bloody business of carving his way to the Altar.

/

Ferrell was a dead man. Oh he was alive, but with a poisoned fail head in his left lung he wouldn't be alive for much longer. Yet at the same time he fought on, his mind numb to the fact. Rather he felt ecstatic, like he had just gotten off.

In the back of his mind he knew it was from his god's Slaanesh's gifts and the weird root, but like a lot of things, he didn't care. Instead he was more of a machine and used his war pick to split open the skull of a marauder bot. He then pushed on, fearless of any consequences.

He and his fellow troops were then bathed in flames from their own lines. Sadly he felt his wounds being healed and HP returning, the pleasure lessening.' Warp Flame?' The thought crossed his clouded mind but he didn't pay attention to it any more than he had to before he automatically blocked a swing of a tentacle.

He looked at its owner, a spawn with sickly pale skin. The thing was bi-pedal and it's body was shifting and moving, its mouths and to many eyes opening and closing as tentacles withered about. If Ferrel still had a mind, he would of ran away or lost his sanity. Instead he readied to charge the thing.

He didn't have to because at that moment a Slughterbrute leapt at the spawn and with its huge steely arms lifted it up. The spawn wrapped its tentacles around the slaughterbrutes arms and hands, sharp claws dug through the skin. The gigantic monster didn't care, instead it started to rip apart and devourer the spawn. Yellow blood splashed and gushed around the slaughter brutes mouth, any bots or players below were covered in the gory substance.

Ferrel then watched as a Nurgle Sorcerer cast a spell, a tide of bloat flies shooting from his staff and into the mouth of the Sluaghterbrute. The beast bloated from the inside at the tide, even as the spell ended he could see the monsters skin crawl and the bugs eat their way out from their fleshy cocoon. The beast was injured and a unit of chaos warriors stepped forward to face it. The unit started to hack, slash and stab the beast, their attacks doing more damage than usual from the poisoning effects of the spells.

Ferrel didn't watch as a player finally slew the monster with a stab through the brainpan, he was facing more and more bots. He then faced a player, a lightly armored marauder at that. With incredible speed Ferrel attacked the marauder; it should have been a striking blow and damaged the players right shoulder. But instead flies flew into his eyes and blinded him for a few moments.

Then he felt it, the Nurgle player's sword stabbed into his side. He couldn't feel the pain, but he felt pleasure and the flakes of rust in his body. He felt the numbing sensation of his skin being broken and split, the blade through both lungs. His health was taken off to near zero and fell to his knees.

Then, when he saw the HP bar hit zero he saw the message 'you are dead' appear in front of his face. At that moment he screamed in pure pleasure at the final release of orgasmic pleasure. Ferrell was a dead man.

/

Kirito was not one to wait. That was why when The Worlds Destruction was just twenty yards away he and his Corsairs he didn't wait to be crushed by the oncoming ogres, he charged them. Kirito directed his soldiers towards the ogres, those things scared him and were the biggest threat to the comparatively frail dark elves.

The distance to the monstrous infantry was covered in just a few strides. Kirito didn't face the monsters on the earth, he would have been stomped on. He instead leapt and landed on one surprised ogres chest, his twin swords sinking in to the hilts through the heavy armor. The monster HP lost about a quarter of its bar.

The ogre then slammed a meaty fist at its chest to crush Kirito. The dark elf let go of one of his swords to dodge the blow. He then swung back and up to the ogre's shoulder, retracting his still equipped sword from the chest. With his free hand gripping the ogres armor and legs wrapped around its arm, Kirito stabbed forward and carved out the throat with a slash. Ogre's HP then started to quickly drop to zero as its life bleed out of it. The beast shuddered and failed in pain; Kirito held on for a moment then leapt for the chest and grabbed his sword, rolling to the ground.

His bots were not doing so well though, they crashed into the ogres or rather they were crushed by the ogres. They may of gotten in the first sword blows and fell four of the ogres . But the surviving ogres and even the ones who were killed fell and stomped onto the elves with ten of them killed outright from the powerful blows. Then came the attack's, the frenzied ogres brought down their duel hand weapons, which could have been considered great weapons by any other race. The elves managed to block the blows, mostly, when they didn't or if the attacks broke through the defense the corsairs were split open, another six elves were lost that way.

From the corner of his eye Kirito could see the status of his company in those still alive and their moral.' I need to kill more ogres.' He then looked at the oncoming tide and had an insane idea.

He ran at the tide of ogres and, after dodging a blow from a war scythe, he leapt at the chest of a second rank ogre. He didn't stab its chest, instead he leapt off its slab of flabby flesh and onto the back of the ogre in front of it. Kirito then balanced on the shoulders of the ogre and then unleashed a combo onto its head and neck. The ogre's head was lifted from its shoulders at the end of the combo.

Kirito leapt away from the dead monster and then onto the shoulders of another unleashing the combo again, then he repeated it again and again. Six more ogres fell from his blades as did another three from his elves. That didn't go unanswered for long.

As he was jumping from the shoulders of his sixth kill a throwing axe sailed through the air and made contact with the ogre, he was about to land on, right shoulder blade.' Alright I had my fun, time to scram.' More axes came from the khorne marked marauders as Kirito started to run. Not on the ground mind you, he would be that much more of an easy target. Instead he ran from each of the living ogre's shoulder's, while looking at his corsair's status.

Thirty of them were dead and the remaining were about to be over run. Up ahead more dark elves, two companies of 50 spear men, were moving to face the ogres. He then gave a verbal order." Company of Midnight, retreat!" The remaining Corsairs then broke and started to run from the enemy lines, directly away, towards the Altar.

He then jumped off the front most ogre's shoulder and started to move his legs as hit the rocky earth. He used his agility stat as he ran back ahead of the oncoming hundreds of ogres.' I've earn my keep. Now I need to keep my life.'

/

It was only when he started to kill the spear ears that Krutz realized he was in the Dark Elf lines. When he had split open a dark elf swordsmen chest he looked up and saw the Altar tower over him. He looked back down and saw the melee going on around him. He could see round him all five armies were fighting around him, they pushed, cast spells an killed each other. He then righted himself, facing towards the Altar and gave a verbal order." Rally to me!"

A ripple went out to his army, a green wave shot out from his location when he spoke, the members of his army seeing the order and those who could started to move towards him. He fought the elves, but keeping back to his lines as they gathered to him. He didn't want to put himself ahead of his forces and get cut off just yet.

But the enemy had other plans. A cadre of Witch Elves fought to him, their bodies moving in sensual and lightning fast movements. Then they were on him, stabbing and slashing at his joints. Their agility was faster than that of Krutz, so he didn't meet them with skill, instead with magic and brute force. He used his recharged magic axe's flaming breath to force them into a position of his choosing, to his left and right. The Witch Elves dodged the incoming fire, some of their skin or hair being singed. But with them being forced to his sides he had an opportunity to face them. He then punched one of the Witch's to the ground and then killed another of the wailing bitches with his axe. He then elbowed a Witch in the neck with his left arm, the spike tearing into her perfect pale skin. His men around him killed another six of them before the remaining backed off/

When he had enough people around him he went behind his lines and opened his menu and then sent orders to the Helcannon battery.

The chaos dwarfs, a mix of former dwarf players who defected to their dark cousins and NPC gunners, operated the Helcannons. They saw their new co-ordinates and then adjusted their aim, prodding and fighting against their cannons. The guns were more akin to monsters than machines. The Chaos Dwarfs then tossed a screaming slave into the furnace in the rear of the cannon to serve as ammunition. The gunners then fired their battery of six expensive, deadly warmachines in the pattern that their master wanted.

In front of Krutz the great balls of fire sent clumps of Dark Elves into the sky, their bodies burning and smoking as they flew. This created a path of destruction that allowed a single point to split the dark elves. Krutz waved his ax, pointing ahead of him." All charge!"

There was a great warcry as he charged into the broken lines, his army following along with him. His army attack the split and with a frenzy, opening it wider to allow more bots to pour in. His attack was not the only one to make gains.

The remaining thousand ogres and trolls of The Worlds Destruction met the ranks of the NPC Dark Elves. In truth they didn't meet as so much crush them, the first ranks of ogres were speared but momentum carried them forward and broke the spears and crushing some of the spear men. At the same time, with the spears broken, the following ogres ran over their fellows and started to stomp on the dark elves. They ran over the bots and then used their weapons with a deadly skill. The trolls were less skillful, yet they had their uses as with their vomit which reduced many an elf and enemy soldier to a melting pile of bones. The elves fought back, hundreds of the ogres were killed. Some by the skill of fighters, others by magic and still more by ranged fire. One troll in particular was pin cushioned by a hundred crossbow bolts before falling. But even as the monstrous regiments fell the virtually un touched army of khorne marked mad men made contact.

As one the elves started to break, under the tidal wave of humanity. A river of blood started to flow and congregate at the base of the Altar where half of the defenders were making their last stand. Atop the Altar Kadi sent down a gigantic ball of purple energy after casting it, killing dozens of bots and a few players who came into contact with it. The chaos sorcerors attempted to shoot bolts of lightning or fire balls at the woman but were dispelled.

Krutz pushed on to the stairs at the base of the Altar, two other lords fighting alongside him. One was from Delights of Destruction, his armor was translucent and his sabers emitting low moans of constant pleasure. The other was a fully armored follower of khorne, his plate naturally red and his halberd was red from gore.

The trio shared a look and then at the remaining dark elves. The Khrone Lord snorted and said." Last one to the top is a dead man!" And so they set off to the stairs.

/

Gerry watched the slaughter unfold, safely three hundred yards from behind the battle. From the hud he could see that all but one of his brigades had suffered at least 50% causality's. That was over 3,600 bots and a few dozen players lost. They were good men and women to, a lot he had over seen raids and battles with. The losses of bots were acceptable, over time they could be recruited and trained; the loss of a limited amount of players was not.

The only brigade not in combat yet was his 1,500 cavalry men, well upgraded marauders and players in plate or like him in light armor. They were not at the level to be investing into chaos knights, let alone juggernauts or Seekers of Slaanesh. The Helcannons were hard enough to obtain and maintain, what with dragging them across the dark lands to here. The other guilds were so lucky to have the other monsters, but then again they were larger or found exploits to obtain them.

The Worlds Destruction being a prime example of gold farmers and spending that money on ogre mercenaries or upgrading their level a certain way so they were able to unlock the chaos ogres and trolls. The monsters of the Delights of Decadence were a different matter; they were the result of sacrifices and quests, not to mention the many, many observances to Slaanesh they were committing.' Not that I don't mind the rite from time to time….' He added silently.

Unlike many of his constituents who charged in aimlessly he was more reserved in where he expended his energies. He learned that from his father, who showed him how to defeat many an opponent in the way's of business. When you ran a casino you had competition and you had to judge, time and manipulate your way to stay alive and crush the opposition. He had taught Gerry when to be ruthless and also to be compassionate. It was not an open way of doing warfare with other tribes, but at the same time it was as close as one could get. Unless you were willing to join the Army and face down some tribesmen from some far off sandy place.

He could play at being a warrior, at the pow wow his tribe put on he played that part as an acrobat and a lancer. He even thought he would be playing at the role of warrior when he put on the Nerve Gear. But since that first day, when he heard the words from Akihiko Kayaba about his role as a pawn, he knew he had a new destiny as a warrior. What he didn't know was where it would take him, what he would be forced to do and what he would find. The only good thing he found was a fellow rider, Wynona.

Gerry watched and then saw the moment had come. He watched that the bottleneck was now taking hold and that The Black Death and Delights of Decadence were over flowing behind the Third Wave. They were doing the same to The Worlds Destruction, but he didn't care about them. He then waited till he couldn't see the rear of The Third Wave's lines and then raised his spear up high." Prepare to charge!" He sent of the verbal order, several sorcerers using their buff magic to boost their stats and give them temporary ability's.

Gerry then spoke the words to his men and women, he forgot if they were from a song or poem, but it was at the same time knew that it was appropriate." It's not ours to question why, ours is to do or die!" He then spurred his horse and shouted." Charge!"

The world which Gerry inhabited shrunk and collapsed in on itself till it was a long tunnel with a pinprick being a single enemy player directing his bots. He was oblivious to the hundreds of horsemen around him; all that mattered was the target. He didn't know if it was an ability or if he did it naturally, all that matter was the tip of his spear and his target. As he galloped the target became more visible, he was a follower of Tzeencht judging from his blank featureless face. His armor was of rainbow colored scales and he carried a mace-staff combination.

The tzeencht player lowered his staff and sent a shower of metal shard's at the oncoming cavalry charge. Against his shield a piece stabbed through and pinned his arm against the wood, his flesh burning from the molten metal. He hardly noticed and instead couched his spear, putting it into a cradle under his right arm.

As he neared into the final distance of 30 yards, he urged his steed forward harder. He pressed his boots against his stirrups and bent his body forward, putting the speed and weight of the horse into the coming blow. Against his chest the mark of khorne glowed bright, from the edges it ran red with blood and he could feel rage flow throughout his body. He steadied his breathing as the world slowed and he put all that rage and strength into the spear. Nothing else mattered.

The Tzeencht sorcerer readied his mace, bringing it over his right shoulder. It was as if he expected to knock Gerry off his horse with a blow. Maybe if the horseman was armed with a hand weapon, then maybe he would have a chance. But Gerry was armed with a spear, its tip aimed at the heart of the Tzeencht warrior. Nothing else mattered.

Then it came, the moment of contact. For a brief moment the spear hit the players warding save, then it broke through and his armor which broke just as easily under the charge. The next fraction of a second was that of the spear stabbing though the player's chest and heart and killing him instantly. But the spear continued on and punched through the back of the armor and then stabbed through a bot before Gerry had to let go.

As soon as the charge ability came, it went away as soon as he let go of the spear. He then drew his hand axe, or as he and most players called it a tomahawk, and then faced his enemies. With his world open up he could see them in their multitudes and knew he would please his god and get him one more step closer to ultimate freedom.

/

Krutz, the Khorne and Slaneesh lords made strange bed fellows. They fought to the base of the Altar's stairwell and instead of fighting each other, they continued to fight the elves. First it was individually facing Bleakswords, which once the followers of Chaos found the elves routine, were quickly dispatched by the players.

It was only when they faced the Blackguard that the trio started to work together. First the Khorne lord charged up head and stabbed his halberd forward past the head of a Blackguard. Seemingly he missed the target… that was till he pulled the halberd back as the Blackguard readied to stab the chaos lord. The blade of the halberd caught the elf on the back of his neck and the Chaos Lord pulled him down the Blackguard, right onto the swords of the Slaaneshi follower.

As the Khrone Lord faced a halberd armed Blackguard, Krutz dueled the great sword armed champion. This allowed a path for the Slaaneshi lord to run up the stairs and then start to duel a pair of Blackguards who were slowing up the trio. Krutz head butted the Blackguard he was facing and then buried his axe into his chest through the armor above his throat where it was weaken when he was stunned. The Khorne Lord on the other hand used a more elegant thrust with his halberd through the throat of his current enemy, into the back of his brain. Krutz and the Khorne Lord then charged up the stairs. With the two Blackguards arggo'ed by the Slaaneshi lord, the other two quickly dispatched the elves.

The trio continued their ascent till the last few dozen steps, when they stopped as one. Ahead of them was a cadre of witch elve's bots and the two Dark Elf commanders. The commanders were at the Altar, Kadi was in the beginning stages of casting a powerful spell. Sig was next to her, his Halberd at the ready. Each of the lords were capable enough to handle the Witch Elves on their own, but they had taken damage. Little nicks, cuts and broken fingers were what directly took damage from, reducing their health to around half strength. Their armors had also taken damage and would soon require matintence if they would remain servable. The player who faced the unhurt players would surely die or if not be the first the fall from his fellow chaos lords, then the last two would fight… that was if they were to do so with honor.

As it turned out honor was not a common quality amongst the players that was in great qualities. The Slaaneshi Lord attacked the Khorne Lord and Krutz with his twin sabers, looking to stab them in the back through their armor. The Lord didn't factor in that armor was there to act as protection and his sabers were for slashing and not for piercing thick full plate armor. The pair also moved as they heard the sabers wail and the blows skidded across their armor. The Korne Lord then followed up with a slash of his halberd at the Slaaneshi, who with a grace of a dance avoided the heavy blade.

Krutz on the other hand took this as his opportunity to travel to the Altar of Ultimate darkness. The Witch Elves on the stairs were the easiest foes he faced, they were currently at a high experience level given the amount of time that Kadi had to upgrade them. They should have been an elite unit, on par with mid-bosses. But they didn't have any real armor and with their master casting a powerful multi-verse spell they could not afford magical protection.

Krutz unleashed his deamon bound axe, the ability recharged over time and the blood of dozens feeding the blade. The flame thrower like weapon vomited forth its flames. There was nowhere for the witch elves to go and twenty of the coven were killed as their bodies were engulfed in flames. Krutz strode forward without a care, his heavy metal boots crushed the ashen remains underneath.

Behind him the Khorne Lord and Slaanishi fought. The Khronate follower using rage and strength behind his blows to fight aggressively, to break his enemies defense. The Slaanishi follower was quicker on his feet, able to get strikes in and also to dodge attacks, which surly would of broken through his defense.

As his fellow chaos lords dueled, Krutz advanced on Kadi. She was nearly finished with her spell, the Purple Sun of Xerxe's, which she had sent down into the hordes below. If the spell was cast the same fate as the others who had come into contact with it would have had been visited upon Krutz. Instead he just spoke three words." Finish her Siggurd."

The Blackguard then, without a moment's hesitation, brought his halberd down and opened cleaved Kadi open from right shoulder to left lung. Her face had a look of surprise as she met her death. She didn't scream but rather expended her last bloody breath before falling back onto the altar. The Altar pulsed with the blood of the sorceress onto it's black onyx stone work. " Well done Siggurd. You've earned your place as one of my circle because of this.

Sig, or rather Siggurd opened his menu." A pleasure. I couldn't go far with Delf's anyway. " He then snorted." I will admit that as much as Kadi was fun in the sack, but she was one crazy bitch with idea's that we could actually win here." He then pressed the defection button and with that he was now part of the Chaos Warriors and with a few more button presses was part of the Third Wave.

A few steps below the duel was coming to an end. The Slaanishi lord raised up his sabers, crossing them in a defensive stance. The Slaanishi lord knew that something was wrong when he didn't feel the full force of the blow. Then the Khorne lord struck, he gripped the fellow chaos lord's neck with his left hand. Before the slaanishi lord could bring his swords down to slice off the offending arm, the Khorne lord slammed the Slaanesh follower into the stairs hard enough to stun him. The Khorne lord then started to strangle the player as he retracted the halberd, then stabbed into an armored joint. The translucent armor showing the penetration and the blood filling the armor. The Slaaneshi lord gasped in pleasure and then with a final crunch around his throat, stopped resisting as his neck snapped. The Khorne Lord then took the Slaanesh followers head as a trophy, tearing it from the head.

The Khorne Lord then raised both arms up into the air, the head along with part of the spin lifting up as well, then the remaing lord screamed." Blood for the blood god! Skulls for the Skull Throne!" If the game had a sound track for that moment, it would of played something metal at that moment.

Instead a cloaked figure appeared between the two chaos lords, unseen by Siggurd. He stood on the stairs and didn't look at either of them. Instead he spoke in his raspy voice." You have done well Krutz and Xarsson. The gods have watched and enjoyed the battle." He smiled under his cloak." You both have earned your rewards. You have both earned The Blessings of The Gods and may-" There was seemingly a glitch as the figure blinked with pixies around him. For a brief moment his face was full of rage, then sadness and then it returned to normal." You have completed the first part of the Path of Glory quest."

The pair were then struck with their gifts. The Khorne lord's back exploding with blood drenched wings, at which he could feel the discomfort of them breaking the skin and tearing through his armor. Krutz's helmet on the other hand blasted from his forehead, a pair of long twisted horns emerging from the helmet. They both cried out at the unnatural feeling's.

When it was over their companion was gone. They instead shared a look with each other, the battle winding down below. Xarsson the Khorne Lord spoke." That was good enough slaughter for today… I plan on enjoying my gifts and I am sure you want to as well. That's why I will let you live today, not to mention our Bar's are where they should be right now." He then sprend his untested wings… and then jumped from the stairs. He then flew away to his lines.

Siggurd then asked." Should we kill him?"

Krutz then laughed, what could be seen of his face covered in his blood." No. I want to enjoy my game as long as I can, and enemies make them so much more fun." And so he planned for the day where he would face Xarsson.

Today though, today belonged to the Undivided and The Worlds Destruction.


	8. Hochland Teachings: Final Exams are Hell

**A/N: See first chapter for disclaimer, in addition I do not own Kings of War, that belongs to the kind folks at Mantic GamesNow then check out my DA page and you'll find the Hochland Purgers.**

**P.S.: Get hyped for the Imperial Civil War folks because I've just watched Mad Max Fury Road and I've got some crazy idea's!**

**Thusgrim: Wait till the Imperial Civil War really kicks off!**

**Adburg76: Well now that you mention it… I won't give more info on what I plan for the finally save for things will be going down, down down the 'ring of fire'….**

**/**

**Alright I'm going to be doing something I've not done before but I've a feeling that before this fic is finished I have to do this. It's an appendix of characters appearing in this chapter, since it's so large and I can't quite fit them in with their own introductions. Right, so if you don't want any spoilers read the top appendix and the second one at the bottom of the chapter.**

**Appendix 1: Heroes of other tales. (If any one want's to use these OC's and canon characters for spin off's of WAO just PM me and we can arrange a future story)**

**All players are in their high 20's or low 30's level wise. **

**Dwarfs- Each a member of this group belongs to the High Mountain Guild, the second largest guild in Karaz-a-Karak. Their guild colors are red and blue with trim in white.**

**Ovon: Is the younger brother of Ovthen. He has a short cropped brown blonde beard and green eyes. His face is rounded with a square jaw. He wears steel chainmail with runes of stone engraved on some of the rings giving him stronger armor, his helmet is a horned steel helm with a rune of warding to steer away the occasional missile directed towards his head. He is armed with a great weapon axe.  
Forces under his command: 30 Longbeards armed with great weapons and a full command.**

**Ovthen: Is the older brother of Ovon and is the leader of this ****clique**** of dwarfs. He looks much like his younger brother, though differs with a few more grey's in his beard, which goes to his chest and a pair of blue eyes instead of green. He wears partial gromil plate armor without runes. He wields a great hammer, with the rune of fire engraved on it and a brace of pistols.  
Forces under his command: 20 Thunderers with full command and a cannon with the rune of burning and rune of reloading. **

**Skavur: Skavur is the slimmest dwarf in the group and an American from West Virginia. His skin is a light brown and hair a deep black, his beard is short though with a long waxed mustache. He wears steel chainmail with his arms free. He wields a pick-ax with a rune of cleaving.  
Forces under his command: 30 miners with full command and armed with blasting charges. **

**Erent: Erent is the most round tub of the dwarfs and the oldest, a native to Germany. His beard is long, down to his feet and nearly white. What can been seen of his face is wrinkles framing his old grey eyes. He wears steel plate, with a barrel of ale on his back and his helmet has a face mask on it. He wields a hammer and shield.  
Forces under his command: 40 warriors with full command armed with hand weapon and shield.**

**Dark Elves: The Dark elves come from the same guild, the Sinister Shades. Their guilds colors are bright neon green and black.**

**Zytan: Zytan is an Indian citizen in his early thirties and has something of a retort with Darg. His hair is short and his face is thin with a well-trimmed mustache. He wears the typical scaled armor of a dark elf, but with a dark cloak covering his body. He is armed with three weapons, a spear, a long dagger and a repeater crossbow. He is mounted on a Dark Steed.  
Forces under his command: 20 Dark Riders, 30 Dark Ark Corsairs with full command, hand weapon and hand crossbow**

**Darg: Darg is a Russian in his mid-twenties and has something of a swearing competition with Zytan. He has dark auburn hair and brown eyes. He has a sea dragon cloak covering his scaled mail and the tall spiked helmet. He carries with him a great sword. He rides in a cold one chariot when not on foot.  
Forces under his command: A reaper bolt thrower, 40 Dreadspears, 10 Blackguard and 10 Cold One Knights **

**High Elves: The high elves come from a guild based in Saphrey, though are from other parts of the island so their clothes don't match for the most part. **

**Godfrey: Godfrey is the leader of this group of Elves and is originally Japanese. His hair is a bright red and he is bearded. He wears a mix of a scaled armored skirt, with a white lion's skin to cover his body and a steel breast plate. He has a silvered great axe with a large ruby in it's haft. He rides in a white lion chariot when not on foot.  
Forces under his command: 33 White Lions of Chrace with full command and 20 archers **

**Teslaner: Teslaner is a Canadian from Quebec. He has dark hair and Gallic features. He wears robes and cloak of Saprey along with a gold headdress. He carries with him a short sword and blue crystal topped staff.  
Forces under his command: 30 archers, 40 spear men. Both with full command.**

**Raydan: Rayden is from Britain and from the city of Lothern. He has shoulder length brown hair and blue eyes. He is armored in copper scaled armor and a tall helm. He carries with himself a spear with seaweed tied around the haft below the spear head, he carries a shield and bow in addition to the spear.  
Forces under his command: 80 Lothern Sea Guard.**

**Empire-Nordlanders: Both of these men are from the same guild, The Rocks of Defiance. Their guild color's are the same as Nordland's with bright yellow and Blue.**

**Willi: Willi is formally a citizen of Middenland before he made the switch and also from Germany. He has blonde hair and blue eyes, along with a handsome face marred by a scar that ran from above his left eye to cheek. He over his uniform he wears a breast plate with a cog design and his helmet is morion. He is armed with a sword and pistol.  
Forces under his command: 50 Halberdiers, 20 crossbowmen both with full command and 2 Saker cannons.**

**Jason: Jason is from Altdorf and also Southern California, his accent is close to sufer dude. He has brown hair and hazel eyes. He wears partial plate armor protecting his upper body and thighs. He is armed with a great sword that is blessed by a priest of Sigmar, it's hilt being a Teutonic cross.  
Forces under his command: 30 Greatswords with full command and a detachment of 10 swordsmen and 10 militia, 20 handgunners.**

**Chaos Warriors: Various guilds, featured above each character.**

**The Black Suns. 8 pointed black sun on a blue back ground.**

**Jenes (Jen-es): Jenes is an American and follower of Chaos Undivided. He is enclosed completely in white chaos armor with the black sun on his pualdrons, his eyes glow red. He is armed with a sword saw bladed sword and shield, which has the black sun on it.  
Forces under his command: 34 Chaos warriors with full command and armed the same as their commander, 50 marauders with great weapons and 5 chaos knights.**

**Feltan: Feltan is a Brit and follower of Chaos Undivided. He has red skin, black hair and green eyes, he wears a pair of trousers and a pualdron on his left shoulder with the mark of the black sun. He is armed with a pair of axes.  
Forces under his command: 40 Marauders armed with two hand weapons with full command, 30 marauder horsemen with spears and throwing axes and 10 Forsaken.**

**The Red Dawn. Red sickle on a yellow feild.**

**Heno: Follower of khorne, Russian. Red chaos armor with the pauldrons being gold with a red sickle. Armed with a sickle-great weapon.  
Forces under his command: 20 Chaos Warriors armed with great weapons and full command, 20 Forsaken and 10 Chosen with full command.**

**Delios: Follower of Tzeench and not affiliated with any guilds. Delio's is Chinese in origin but as of late his skin has Mutated to rainbow scales with a serpents head. He is wrapped in blue and yellow robes. He is armed with a Staff and a flaming sword.  
Forces under his command: 50 Chaos marauders armed with sword and shield full command, Sluaghterbrute. **

/

_Hergig, Capitol of Hochland  
June 2 2023, 10:30AM_

Today was a Friday, it was the last day of the week and for the students under Rufus Adler's tutelage it was almost time for their final test. For over a month now they had heard his lectures, had joined him for 'jaunts' into the forests of Hochland while being shot at with missiles ranging from crossbows to cannon fire. All the while he lectured them on how being calm and in control was vital in decision making while under fire. None of those who had taken the class had died, but at the same time a few had resigned at being under fire and others had been wounded.

Right now the class was waiting for their professor outside of the college. Of the twenty students who started his class, there were now sixteen students remaining. There were five elves, two from Naggaroth and three from Ulthuan, four followers of Chaos, two Undivided, a follower of Khorne and one of Tzeencht, four Dwarfs all from Karaz-a-Karak and the city's largest guild, two of the those present were from the province of Nordland, while the last student was the shapely Minotauress. Their handler and master was not amongst them.

Instead Rufus was in his office overlooking the courtyard below, his booted feet on his desk as he read The Daily Argo. Rusty was reading the same paper as he chewed on a cheese wheel across from Rufus on the same desk. On the front page of the paper was wood cut image of Chaos Warriors and Dark Elves fighting below a giant spire. The caption read.' Incursion in Naggaroth!' The piece describe in greater detail than the previous news stories, that not one, not two but four entire armies of chaos followers had invaded the Dark Elf lands and then after the battle melted back into the Chaos Wastes.' Hmm better keep my eyes on the elves and chaos boys, just to make sure they don't try to cause an 'accident'.' Rufus thought.

He then turned the page and then read a short story about a comedic mis-adventure a player went on, his mind though was on the previous story.' That battle took place at the Altar of Ultimate Darkness. Knowing my lore it happened because the Chao's players, at least the leaders, have been on a mission as Archaon The Ever Chosen. Dammit, the Empire is not even united yet and the bastards in the north are already well on their way to the end game. That's not including the other factions fighting all over the Old World." He sighed and was not entertained by the story of a Skaven player, though it was indeed funny.

He closed the paper and then looked at the Death Roll for the day on the back of the paper. Yesterday was light on deaths, only twenty nine lost from the various factions. The average was fifty or on practically bad days when guilds, or rather armies at this point, went to battle it could climb up into around a hundred. When he first read the story a week and a half ago the deaths of that day was around four hundred. The only other time he had read casualties figures was from after the brief flare up of Civil War six months ago when The Daily Argo first started. The list of the dead from the first horrible month would have been near impossible to keep track of in the beginning of the game without an organization dedicated to it.

Rufus sipped on a tankard of thinned down cider, the closet's thing to apple juice that could be made until it was harvest season, as he read of the causes of death. He heard a cough from the young Skaven boy, Rufus lifted his head from his paper." Hmm?" He grunted.

"Don't you think it's time? They have been waiting for about an hour at this point." Rusty pointed a clawed hand at the nearby coo-coo clock which showed the time at a little past 10:30.

Rufus set the paper down on his desk and said." I suppose I've made them sweat long enough." He then finished off the tankard and then stood." Right better make our way down then." He was dressed in full attire, making sure his Sigil was exposed around his neck. He then set off, leaving the office as Rusty scampered up behind.

As they walked to the stairs Rufus asked." So, how did you think the Kings of War battle went last night?" The wargame was a simple but deep rule set which was easily replicated in this world in comparison to Warhammer Fantasy which even the developers had a hard time following. Of the table top developer's there was currently a 20,000 gold piece reward for the capture or death for a certain developer in particular. He was wanted for, and not limited to. 'The Writing of 5th Edition Space Marines, 3rd Edition Chaos Space Marines, Causing unwanted stress amongst several hundred thousand gamers and OP'ing army codex's." Even Kayaba's wanted level was just slightly larger than the developers.

If the game of Warhammer Fantasy was to re-created in this world it would require a large team of dedicated writers and in a printed format it would have been a full fledge book, that was before the additional army books. While Kings of War, including the army lists would fit into a slim 40 page volume. With the armies of Kings of War drawing very similar parrels to the armies of The Warhammer World. It took only two hours how to teach the class how to play. Then yesterday he had each of his students play him one on one with his collection of models with a different scenario, each of the games lasting at most 45 minutes. Some games he won, most he lost, but weather his opponents won or lost he got to understand their tactical minds somewhat better.

Rusty then spoke." It was fun the first five games, but I got broad after a while. Why aren't you so broad after like sixteen games?"

They began to walk down the stairs as Rufus replied." Because to me this is the most fun I've had in this world. Well besides teaching and an occasional fight, but that is more of a job."

As they exited the stairs Rusty asked, his voice full of skepticism. "You're actually having fun, here in the old world?" He raised a furry eyebrow.

Rufus chuckled as he spoke." Welp, this is a MMO after all. Its death penalties are overzealous, but that don't mean I can't find a few fun things to do or create." Of course the female bot prostitutes were also 'fun', when he was able to determine whether or not Grandpa Nurgle had blessed them or not (which he did not want), but Rufus wouldn't say it in front of the child. And then there was the 'live target' of which he was pleasantly entertaining in a professional relationship. Hey may not of had many ethic's left, but he did honor the teacher-student relationship.

The pair passed through the doors of the college and there waiting for him was his current target, Tatianna the Minotauress. She was easily to pick out of the crowd since she towered over most of the other students. She also rocked an armored corset and chainmail skirt which was digitally shaped to her body which enhanced her assets. Rufus couldn't help but smile at the sight of her, but he masked it by giving a speech.

"Greetings lady and gentlemen. Today marks the final test of Military Thought and Action. You'll be tested as commanders of your bots in a real battle, not some dungeon raid or skirmish with rouges or mobs. You'll mobilize your companies for this final test in which you'll be working together to survive the coming battle. Should you survive then you'll pass and get your diploma, if you don't then you don't have to worry about anything else ever again." His smirk turned slightly sadistic and a good portion of the students cringed. They had very good reason to think he was a sociopathic near-maniac, fresh scars pertaining to the theory.

He then open up his menu to send out an invite to the students.' Adler has sent you an invitation to join his Expedition. Do you accept?' The message said, at which point the classmates all pressed yes. Even Rusty accepted an invite to join the expedition.

Then speaking aloud Rufus told his class." Alright, get your troops up and moving to the Northgate. Y'all have a good march ahead of you, so start typing."

/

It an hour later on a road along the River Kiefer, there was a mixed expedition of several armies making its way upstream ten miles north of Hergig. There were warriors of chaos marching in felt or metal boots, which in any other circumstance would have been a fright had this world followed by the world it was based on rules. The Dark Elves would have been slightly less frightening, but with around any force the peasants would of rung the warning bells and tried to hide themselves before being killed or taken in slavery.

The High Elves would have been greeted with greater trepidation, but would have been welcomed. The Dwarfs would have been one of the most welcomed sights, especially by the merchants of the small towns and inn master, if anything for their gold. The Nordland Mercenaries, in their bright Blue and Yellow livery, would be met with a greeting somewhere in between the elves and dwarfs, since they were just as likely to help as to raid the villages.

Tatianna's company of beastmen, numbering at around 60 bots, a third of which were Minotaur's much like herself, while another 20 were paired weapon gors and 20 bow armed Ungor raiders. This would have been met by militia right off instead of allowing them to pass or try to hide. The hate that the men of the empire had for the Beastmen was deep and ran back thousands of years, while the Beastmen were of the same opinion of the Empire.

Scampering along in the rear was Rusty's horde of over 200 Skaven. 30 of them were Jezzail Gunners, another 20 were Gutter Runners, 10 Rat Ogres, several weapon teams and the rest were made up several regiments of Clan Rats. If the people of the Empire were programed as they were in fiction, they wouldn't believe that 300 ratmen were marching through the forest since they clearly didn't exist. The idea that anthropomorphic ratmen planning world domination was absolutely preposterous, especially in a world where their Emperor rode atop a griffon carrying a magic hammer against hordes of misshapen monsters and deamons.

Finally there was the band of Adler the Witch Hunter. Just the sight of the Witch Hunter at the head of the column would of sent many of the citizens into their homes, praying to Sigmar or if they were guilty to their masters that they would not be interrogated. If that wasn't as bad, then the troops behind him would of scared them even more. Following right behind him was his largest regiment, 30 swordsmen.

The swordsmen wore a combination of orange and brown clothes, the metallic portions of their uniforms were in bright silver. They were not a uniform beyond the same color's, some of them were duelists, mercenaries or adventurers. Of the most notable nonstandard swords men one was pudgy mustached fellow was a Bretonnian with a nearly broken shield, two were sisters of Sigmar with hammer and shields, one was a foot knight and still another was an old duelist with a drooping grey mustache. The command group was Kislev, each wore a fur cap from that far off frozen land, the banner the standard bearer carried though was pure Empire though. The standard being an orange field with the twin tailed comet falling to the earth, unlike most other depictions that were in gold this was in a bright silver.

Behind the swordsmen was a regiment of 20 hand gunners. These men were in the bright red and green of Hochland and had a uniform appearance. They had no armor, but their handguns were reliable flintlocks with long barrels. They didn't have a standard or musician, but did have a champion armed with a brace of wheel lock pistols and wolf cloak. Walking to the side was a detachment of blue uniformed halberdiers.

Behind them came a small unit of 10 Flagellants. Their cries were loud as they whipped and mutilated themselves, all the while screaming adulations to Sigmar. Their leader was reading off half formed apocalyptic prayers or hymns.

Finally there was a mortar being pulled along by a pair of tied work horses. The crew wore mostly black but with the green and red of Hochland in the form of leggings or selves. The mortar ambled along with a creeking of its carriage.

Finally at the rear were wagons of supplies, such as food, extra ammo and gun powder. Even a virtual army needed extra supplies to sustain it over the coming days and battles.

The column peacefully made it's way up the road, not raiding or delivering judgment on the towns along the way. Even rouges and mobs shied away since it was not in their programming to attack a force of this size unless they were a good army size as well. In fact it was peaceful with some marching songs being sung by the various battalions or conversation with the players or students as it was.

Besides making sure that the Dark Elves were at the head of the column and the Warriors of Chaos were at the rear, the players were allowed to mingle with one another. Their regiments would continue on without there being fear of them splitting off or getting lost. So long as Adler was moving at the head of the column the army would continue to march.

As it was Tatianna and Rusty's columns were right after each other and after an hour of listening to dwarfen songs they gravitated to each other. Tatianna looked down at the Skaven boy and decided to break the silence." So, how did you decide on your build?"

The boy kept looking ahead as he answered." I've been shooting flint locks for years now. It's a skill I'm familiar with… though it's much easier to hit someone with a musket in this game than IRL."

Tatianna was surprised by how articulate the child was and that he had talked so much. He had mostly kept himself to a single sentence replies when he was in public. She decided to see if she could get a real conversation going with him." How is it different then in the real world?"

"When I look down the sights and the scope I can use my in game skills to trace a line to where my target is. I'm getting better at it with grinding and I think I can do some wild trick shots eventually. But at the same time it's not like holding the real thing." He spoke with a shrug.

She nodded." The same is the thing with fighting. With AI all you need to do is look for their patterns, with players their skills and counter with your own. Ya, you can throw in a few surprise moves not part of the system, but it's not like in the real world when you fight against someone who is thinking… neither is the impact as strong when you actually hit them."

Rusty added." Things are so much simpler to do in the game then IRL and people are so different here then they would be in the real world. Killing people is easier for me here than back home."

If the warning bell's in Tatianna's mind were real at that moment, they would have been air raid serein's." So you could of killed in the real world?" She asked him.

At that Rusty confidently replied." Yeah. I won't like it, but I won't hesitate when it comes to killing. I've taken deer and a bear IRL, then there was Skavenblight with Laughing Coffin…." At that his voice lost it's confidence and he sighed." When I heard about my mom's friend being in the game I left that city as fast as I could. I did not want to get picked up by those pricks from Hamlin."

For the most part she was surprised that one so young could talk so confidently about killing. She had beaten up and injured a few people back in the real world, she didn't ask her daddy what he did to especially pesterous clients. But she never killed till she came here and that made her sick when she had split open that poor bastards chest. She didn't want to continue at the thought so sought to change the subject." Hamlin? What's that?"

As soon as she spoke she regretted it when she heard his answer." Slavers who got the idea of herding kids into their 'houses' by watching some show called Log Horizon." He responded curtly." Their also a bunch of- wait why did the army stop?"

They both came to a halt when he spoke. They had continued walking for a good thirty yards ahead of their companies and were close to the front of the column. They looked at Rufus who was in turn looking down a dark forest pathway. He was already turning to the Dark Elves as they watched." Zytan!" He shouted.

Zytan rode up on his steed. He then spoke in heavily accented English." Yes sir?"

Rufus pointed down the dark path." I want you and your dark riders to scout. I need you to report to me whatever you find, send me a message once you get to the end of the trail. If there are mobs I want you to not engage and return back to the column. Understood?"

Zytan nodded and then opened his menu to detach his regiment from the main column and then attached himself to it. He then rode off and went down the path upon his fast steed. Tatianna walked up to Rufus when the Dark Elf had left." What is wrong?" She asked him.

Rufus looked away from the path to her." I haven't seen this path before today. I want to see what is down it before the final test, just to be sure were not going to get flanked." He then thought for a moment, then opened his mouth as If to speak… then closed it. He then spoke aloud not to her but to the column." Commanders to the front! Pass it down."

The word was passed down the near quarter mile of bots and the players made their way towards the front. All the while Rufus was observing Zytan's movements on a map. When the players were gathered up by him he repeated what he told Tatianna to them.

Ten minutes after he had left Zytan sent a message to Rufus. Tatianna watched her professor and friend's face, his eyes opened up at the first few lines then it became intrigued. Finally he looked up and chewed his lip while looking at the players then their companies. He sent a message off to Zytan and closed his menu." Change of plans." Rufus spoke." We're going to do some exploring ladies and gents. That means I want you all to be on your guard. Dismissed!"

Rufus then spoke to Tatianna." I want you and your bots to be on the flanks in the center of the army. Their suited to this terrain and if there's going to be an ambush I want at least a couple of seconds warning."

Tatianna nodded and took her company out of the column. But she was disturbed as she did so.' I'm worried. We're going off the plan and even Rufus doesn't know what is awaiting us.'

Rufus then started to move out, the army following him into the dark forest.

/

_An hour later…._

The forest path was little more than a dirt road wide enough for the guns to be pulled along on. To either side of the road the trees stood like pillars, or prison bars. The trunks were wider than the rat ogres or minotaur's traveling alongside the army. The sun was blotted out as the leaves from the trees covered the trail, leaving the army to be covered in gloom.

Rufus looked ahead and saw the light at the end of the figurative tunnel. There was Zytan and his regiment of dark rider, behind him was a ruined gate house. The wall towered above the elf by thirty feet, its grey stone exposed to the elements.

Rufus tipped his hat at Zytan and said." Thank ya kindly. Join your company."

He then passed by Zytan and went through the gatehouse. In front of him was a ruined citadel. The citadel was situated in the corner of the fortress, being a junction between two walls. Though it's central tower had crumbled the keep was for the most part intact. At each corner of the citadel was a minaret tower.

The walls surrounding the keep were for the most part complete, but the northern wall next to the citadel had a gash leading to the outside and the forest beyond. The walls had a square tower at each corner of the fortress, each was caved in and for the south western corner it was collapsed. The walls enclosed a three acre parade ground, along the walls were the telltale signs of burnt buildings long since destroyed.

Rufus rode to the keeps gate, his eyes scanning and looking at the remaining stone work. Behind him his army filled in the parade grounds. He opened his map and read the name of the castle silently. He then dismounted and turned to his students." I bet your all wondering where we are now?" Rufus spoke.

The small crowd nodded their heads or spoke 'yes'. Rufus then continued." Well then. We are currently in the ruins of Hard Oak. You lot don't know what this place is so I'm going to tell you exactly what the story is behind this place. Over a thousand years ago before the great plague Darkwald was its own province. Over the years it fell into ruin when a corrupt ruler took over and then left to rule the Empire. This castle was once the central defensive structure of that realm, but as you can see it has been over ran long ago." He then smirked." Now then why are we still here if may ask? Well until I say otherwise you lot are under my command and your test is still going on. That's why were going to camp here tonight and I'm going to see how well you learned about defensive skills. Now then, I want you to come up with a defensive solution to this castle and you must elect which plan that sounds the most reasonable from amongst your group. The person who's plan is the best and if I decide to keep it will get a gold star. You have 30 minutes to do so, starting now."

After he finished speaking he said to Rusty." Can I talk to you alone?" Rusty nodded and stepped forward, at the same time Rufus passed through the keeps entrance, pushing open the stone doors.

In front of Rufus was the once great hall, his breath caught in his throat as he looked into it. The room it self was in ruins, solid pillars holding it up after so long, but it was what was in the room that was most disturbing. Here there was refuse and dark sigils on the floor and etched into the walls. Then at the center of the room was a pillar with a wooden 8 pointed star, upon it was man nailed to it. His legs and arms splayed out, his chest was open and skin nailed to the star as well. But what was most frightening of all was that the man was still alive, his lungs pumping oxygen. He looked at Rufus… well his head looked at Rufus, his eyes were long since gouged out.

"Kill… meee…." The NPC begged with a raspy voice. His breath labored.

Rufus then straighten his jacket and coughed, assuming his 'serious' face.' This is a quest flag if I ever saw one.' He thought before striding forwards. Rufus spoke to the man, his voice clear and with an edge of threat to it." Who are you and why are you up on that blasphemous symbol of the dark gods?"

"Heinz… captured… beastmen rit… ritualahhh. Will be back…. By the… rising of… the moons." A message then appeared before Rufus as the man finished speaking. It was for the acceptance of Mission.' Hold Hard Oak.' Without a thought of the consequences Adler accepted the mission. If he was going to stay the night might as well make it a fun one, including for his students.

Heinz then rasped out." Kill me…." The recital above his head showed he was now an enemy with a sliver of health left.

Rufus drew his long pistol and made the hammer of Sigmar on his chest." May Sigmar bring you peace Heer Heinz." He then pressed the barrel to the NPC's head and pulled the trigger. Rufus sighed as he watched the NPC hang there like a rag doll. He then felt the eyes of Rusty behind him.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" Rusty asked, his Jezzail on his shoulders.

Rufus turned on his heel and started to reload his pistol." I need someone to act as my wing man." He then looked around as his hands automatically reloaded the pistol, just from muscle memory alone." I think there can be a few treasure's and I want first pick."

Rusty snickered." Are you sure you're not part of Kibaou's circle?"

Rufus gave a half smile." I only take advantage of a situation when no one will get hurt. Well besides their feeling's and pride." He then holstered his pistol and said." Come along." He then started to walk into the keep towards a nearby archway, a stairway going down below the main hall way.

"You know someone is going to try and kill you if you push your luck." Rusty said, his sandaled feet following his guardian's down the stair way.

Rufus took a torch from the wall and then lit it to illuminate the path ahead. He pulled his warhammer hammer and held it with his right hand and the torch in his left." Oh I know. The thing is, I'm going to force it when I choose to. You gotta know when to apply the right amount of pressure, after all you apply to much and what your applying to is crushed, while-."

Rusty finished for him." While the right pressure make's diamonds. Mom told me that you used to quote that old Patton movie a lot when you were younger."

Rufus chuckled and stepped onto the bottom of the stair well, looking right and left." Actually I quoted a few of those old movies when I was younger. Here's looking at you kid. Warriors come out to play! I'm going to make an offer they can't refuse." He then gave a louder laugh." Though I did learn from the real old movies you could solve a lot of problems if you break out in a song and dance routine."

Rusty snorted." I'll like to see that happen, before you get shot of course."

" Hey I remember the Three Amigo's did that." Rufus spoke." I could perform 'My Little But-"

Rusty glared at him and said." No… just no." Then he looked beyond his guardian. With his enhanced low light vision he saw a transparent figure down the hall way, an Empire soldier." Ghost." He swung his Jezzail into a firing position, his Warp Stone bullets being extremely effective against ethereal creatures from their magical properties.

Rufus lifted the torch ahead of him and readied his hammer for a strike." Damn I was hoping to find treasure before a mob."

/

A good twenty minutes later Rufus and his charge emerged from the depths of the ruined castle. Slightly richer from a couple of small chests and the remains of ghosts and a few skeletons. They hadn't discovered any hidden rooms, but there was some debris from collapsed tunnels that could be cleared away later.

They saw the students mingling with one another until Rufus shouted." Alright line up!"

It took a near ten seconds for the students to line up in front of Rufus. He stood as he watched him, legs open and arms behind his back, his face impassive. He then spoke." What plans have you got. Step forward!"

Ovthen and Willi stepped forward. Rufus then nodded to the dwarf." You first." The Witch Hunter said to him.

Ovthen spoke." We should consolidate our companies around and in the citadel. Build a barricade inside the citadel's door way and several rings of defensive stakes, with ditches around the fort. With the dirt from the ditches we can put the war machines in emplacements to cover the door. Then build a palisade were the breech in the wall is. That way if an enemy attempts to come into the fort they will have to go through the gate and into a killing field."

Rufus nodded and then then looked at Willi. The Nordlander then said." I agree with Ovthen on the defenses but I think we should also use the cavalry as well. Allow lanes for the elves and chaos warriors to charge though and counter attack the enemy. It would be better than to let them be charged. Also we should post a war machine into the citadel and maybe a pair onto the walls. On the walls themselves ranged units should be posted to fire into the killzone and to act as pickets."

Rufus considered the two plans and then after a few moments of deliberation said to the class." Willi, your idea wins out. Not because it's yours originally but because you improved on Ovthen's plan." He then produced a pair of silver coins." You will get this." He tossed the coins over to Willi." And because you thought the original plan up." He tossed another 3 silver coins over Ovthen." You get the runner up prize."

The two then smiled at the small condolence and pocketed the coins.

/

Adler then divided up the group into a couple of work teams. The high elves and warriors of chaos would work on cutting down the forest near the citadel walls to give a clear field of fire around the castle and also to provide building materials for the other groups. Delio's was able to make the work go quite quickly with ordering his sluaghterbrute to tear tree's out of the earth with it's powerful arms and then tossing them to the side. The second group were the dwarfs and Willi, these men were the one's setting up the frame work and planning of the defenses of the fort. They worked to rebuild the wall and set the lines where the bitches would be dug and where the emplacements should go. They were signing dwarfish work songs as they worked. The third group were the dark elves and Jason, who were digging the ditches and most of the work that the dwarfs couldn't get to.

Then there was Rusty who was set to scamper around the citadel. His job was to eliminate mobs within the stone building that he and Rufus may of missed earlier. He had the aid of his warp fire throwers to help burn down the effigy's and other symbols of the dark gods. After he had of course cleared the rooms for any treasure or flags for future quests, he didn't want to lose out on loot.

Then there was Rufus and Tatianna walking outside of the walls as a scouting mission and also to discuss what he had found in the citadel. Also a little alone time on the side was welcomed." So there you have it. We have an army of beastmen bearing down on us in a few hours by the rising of the moons." Rufus finished after explaining the situation to her.

Tatianna's shoulders slumped as she walked besides him, making her way easily over the roots and tree trunks." So… you just agreed to fight an entire army of beastmen, that you don't know the size of. To top it off this is spontaneous and deviates from a set plan? That is so idiotic…." She unloaded on him, to which Rufus cringed at.

She then sighed." Why would you press yes? Why would you put so many in danger?"

Rufus then spoke with full confidence." Eh, I'm expecting a few good rewards, maybe a few magic items. Plus I would rather have a full army than just a couple of regiments at my back."

She looked at him." That is… that is something I would do." 'And something daddy would of done as well. Damn I thought American's were supposed to be ethical idiots.' Tatianna thought.' Then again he hasn't made any real moves on me yet so….'

Rufus snorted." Dive right with a vague promise of reward, while risking almost certain death. What could ever go wrong?"

Tatianna shook her head and palmed her face." You want that alphabetically or numerically?" She sighed." Never mind." She decided to drop the subject then. It wasn't going to help her right now since the decision had already been made, she might as well work with it instead of against the choice. Instead she then said with a bit of annoyance at hearing the dwarfs singing in their own language." What is that their singing, sounds like an avalanche."

Rufus heard the words the dwarfs were singing and working to with their tools moving to.' Skrundar at kol grung, ekrund ekrund ekrund.' It took a moment for the song to register but then Rufus busted out laughing." They are singing an Ameican song it goes 'Working in a coal mine, going down down down'. Not as good as Diggy Diggy Hole but a nice song anyway."

Tatianna was surprised that he was actually able to answer the question." Wow… how did you know that?"

He got a goofy grin on his face." I'm a huge nerd IRL. I have both editions of Grudgelore back at home. Sure I could learn the lingo here, my scholar skill is pretty high at the moment, but I already know Khazalid. Elfish on the other hand, not so much."

Tatianna then stared at him dumbly… then started to laugh loudly." Ah… oh… ohh god…!" She wheezed between breaths.

Rufus raised an eyebrow." What so funny?"

She spoke in between breaths, her voice crackling with giggles." Your… you're a witch hunter… in the woods standing next… next to a minotaur… with an entire army… and you are talking like a… geek at a convention!" She silently admitted that he could make her laugh.

When she put it that way Rufus couldn't help but laugh as well. The entire situation was ridicules, from being trapped in a game, to the setting and finally the conversation of being out of character." That is so funny!" He spoke in between laughs.

After about five minutes they both calmed down. Rufus wiped a tear from his eye and said." I haven't laughed that hard since Gettysburg."

Tatianna calmed down, her bountiful chest heaving as she asked." What happened there?"

Rufus stood up straight as he spoke, his smile still on his face." My father and I went to Gettysburg, a town that held host to the largest battle in the Western Hemisphere. There was a huge 150th anniversary battle and we attended it. The first day as observers, the other days as participants. On the first day we watched the morning battle unfold and walked around the camps and merchant alleys. It was around noon and we were beat tired, so we decided to head back to the car to refresh. Well when we got there we had a packed breakfast from our hotel we saved for the day. It wasn't anything fancy, just an apple, a cereal bar, a bottle of water and some yogurt. I bit into the apple and that was when I started to laugh. I continued to laugh through the lunch." He then paused and then remembered the old memory before saying." It was at that moment that I realized I had a real happy moment. A simple apple on a hot day with my father, it was a good moment. Just as good as my time with Sam at the fort."

Tatianna smiled." I had something like that with daddy. One time he decided to tag along with one of my larps. It was a bad day for my group and we were loosing in combat and I was getting pushed back. So my daddy comes up and took on three of the bastards with his fists. He proceeds to beat each one up while saying.' Don't touch my daughter. Your dead if you touch her!' After that I had to get fight and all the boys would just give up. After that me and daddy hugged and laughed, joking how we both took on an entire guild and won."

Rufus chuckled." Funny story that."

Tatianna nodded and then her face turned serious." You should talk to Rusty and give him some guidance like how our fathers helped us."

Rufus could hear the tone change in her voice and asked." Why what's wrong?"

Tatianna said to him." He told me that he was ready to kill in game and out of game. That he wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger. It's just not something I expect to hear from a ten year old and I'm disturbed by it."

Rufus listened to her concerns, his hands locked behind his back." I'll talk to him about it. But at the same time I'm glad that he has that attitude." At seeing her confused look Rufus elaborated." He grew up in a family of warriors. His uncles served and grandfather served in mid-east, one of which didn't make it back. Then there is his family tree of generals, presidents and royals that he was taught about since he was old enough to understand his past. I mean when I was with the family they also used to gush about the 'good ol' days'. He knows that when in a war don't hesitate, just do."

He then smirked." Speaking of war. I need to discuss with you the possibility of there being some rather large monsters being part of the beastmen army."

/

In the early evening Hard Oak was not in its full glory as it once was a thousand years ago. But it looked better than it had in centuries. The parade grounds was heavily defended with three rows of stakes and two ditches. The final line was raised earth works for the imperial troops to fire from there, at the corners and center of the line were the cannon emplacements. On the emplacements the two Sakers were set up on either flank with the dwarf cannon at the center of the emplacements its it's barrel aimed for the gate house.

In front of the earth works was the marauders, some chaos warriors, the slaughterbrute and most of the elfin spearmen. Most but not all, the seaguard were set up on the stairs and in the barricades leading to the citadel. In between the citadel and earth works were most of the empire troops, even Rufus had committed his swords men and flagellants to the fight. The first line of defenses though were the Skaven clan rats at the very first ditch. They would die first, but they would serve to slow up the enemies that pour through the gate allowing for more missile weapons to fire into the gate house.

On the walls the dwarfs had set up their warriors to defend around the walls. Barricades were erected on either wall to add another layer of defense to stop any beastmen who made it up onto the walls. The reaper bolt thrower was on the southern wall's tower closest to the citadel. That way if the beastmen broke through the wooden palisade then they would be skewed.

Most of the non-human small arms were set up in the citadel, with it having a firing arc of 360 degrees into the parade grounds and into the forest surrounding the walls. Most of the arms were aimed at the parade grounds while Rufus's hand gunners were directed to the windows outside of the fortress, just in case the enemy launched a attack to the rear of the castle they would serve as a loud early detection system. The citadel also had Rufus's mortar situated on a battlement with it's barrel directed to the parade ground to add more to coming mayhem.

Within the citadel was kept the reserves. These were the ogre sized rats and Minotaur's, along with most of the cavalry. The chariots were kept outside of the citadel since they couldn't fit through the doors.

Then there were the songs. While waiting for the coming battle many of the players selected songs for their regiments to sing. With a bit of editing Rufus sent out a new version of an old song to his students. While the original was about the Fenian rebellion in 1798, of which non of the players save for only a few knew about, this new version of 'By the Rising of the Moon' was rather appropriate which all the players could understand. The regiments sang out.

'Oh then, tell me Sean O'Farrell, tell me why you hurry so?  
"Hush a bit, hush and listen so", and his cheeks were all aglow,  
"I bear orders from the captain:- get you ready quick and soon  
For the pikes must be together by the rising of the moons"  
By the rising of the moon, by the rising of the moons,

For the pikes must be together by the rising of the moons

"And come tell me Sean O'Farrell where the gath'rin is to be?"  
"In the old spot by the river, right well known to you and me.  
One more word for signal token:- whistle out the marchin' tune,  
With your pike upon your shoulder, by the rising of the moons."  
By the rising of the moon, by the rising of the moons  
With your pike upon your shoulder, by the rising of the moons.

Out from many a mud wall cabin eyes were watching through the night,  
Many a manly chest was throbbing, for the blessed morning light.  
Murmurs ran along the valleys like the banshee's lonely croon  
And a thousand pikes were flashing at the rising of the moons.  
At the rising of the moon, at the rising of the moons.  
And a thousand pikes were flashing by the rising of the moons.

There beside the singing river that black mass of beastmen was seen,  
High above their shining weapons flew their own beloved green.  
"Death to every foe and traitor! Forward strike the marching tune."  
And hurrah my boys for freedom; 'tis the rising of the moons".  
Tis the rising of the moons, tis the rising of the moons  
And hurrah my boys for freedom; 'Tis the rising of the moons".

Well they fought for poor old Hochland, and full bitter was their fate,  
Oh what glorious pride and sorrow, fills the name of ten and eight!  
Yet, thank Sigmar, e'en still are beating hearts in manhood burning noon,  
Who would follow in their footsteps, at the risin' of the moons  
At the rising of the moons, At the rising of the moons  
Who would follow in their footsteps, at the risin' of the moons.

Above the parade ground in the citadel's half ruined tower Rufus and Rusty looked out onto their army's fortress. As the only ' Player Sniper' in the army Rusty needed a position with the best views in the fort. Rufus on the other hand was the overall commander of the battle. Though his role was more or less to keep his forces from going outside the walls and sticking to the plan. Next to Rufus was a beam with a rope attached to it, leading the ground below. This was just in case he needed to get into the fray below to lend his hammer if the moment called for it.

As they waited for them moons to rise Rufus talked to Rusty, both of whom were sitting across from each other." I've got a riddle for you." Rufus said to him.

Rusty looked at Rufus and said." Shoot."

Rufus then smirked and asked, as if he had an impossible question." How is a raven like a writing desk?"

At that Rusty snorted." Easy, in fact I got two answers.' Poe wrote on both' and ' Their both inky black'."

Rufus nodded." Good answers. But do you know where the riddle came from and who originally asked it?"

Again he was quick to answer." Alice in Wonderland and by the Mad Hatter. Why are you asking me these questions?"

" Because I think it's appropriate. After all we're all mad in a mad world created by a mad man." Rufus spoke with his mouth set in a toothless grin.

" But I'm not mad." Rusty spoke, then his face furrowed as he realized his mistake.

"Aren't we all? Just in different degrees. Some are quite harmless, such as my following of Sigmar, others like in Averland and Bretonnia are quite insane." He then asked Rusty directly." How much of a mad man are you I wonder?"

Rusty was silent, not answering his guardian's question. Rufus then lost his smile and then sighed." It's not my place to ask what happened in Skavenblight, but I want to make this clear. Do not go out hunting for players off the battlefield without my permission."

That got him a glare from Rusty." How are you sure that I want to do that."

"You have the power and will to do so. If I had the power and chance to do a lot of things you have, what I have now, I would of taken the chance go hunting when I was your age." He then smirked evily." That's why I ask that you ask permission before you go hunting. It's a lot more fun with a buddy, especially one you can trust to watch your back and act as your spotter."

Then Rusty took this as his time to smirk." When do you want to set up this hunting trip?"

" Late September maybe early October." Rufus then saw his map and spoke." Oh Shite." Rusty looked at his own, both of their face's paled.

Rufus stood up and looked out to the forest beyond, both moons above him giving a sort of light to illuminate the dark. In the bright moon light's he could see the forest alive with movement. All around the fort thousand's of bodies moved towards the edge of the forest. Beastial grunts and howls brayed, as did war drums and horns played to announce the army.

" Sweet Sigmar protect us." Rufus spoke to himself. He looked at the mini map to be sure and used his scholar skill once more. His army was not facing a few thousand beastmen. This was a horde of beastmen over 25,000 strong against just over a 1,000 defenders.

Not only was there warherds of gors and ungors, but there were the shapes of hundreds of broad shouldered minotaurs in the light moon light as well. Tree's were toppled and the earth shook as a dozen giants, gorgons and cygor's made their way to edge of the forest. That's when the defenders of Hard Oak made their first kill.

Darg was manning the reaper bolt thrower when he saw the dark outline of a cygor appear out of the forest on the southern side of the wall. He turned the bolt thrower as fast as his bots would allow him to. In the bright moon light he adjusted his aim to the best of ability and with his cross hairs above the gigantic creatures head he fired the shot. The 8 foot long bolt of darkness shot at the cygor, it first looked as if it would go high then it started to arc downwards and caught the eye of the beast. The bolt entered throw the eye and punched through the skull into the cygor's tiny brain, killing it out right. The cygor took a moment to realize it was dead before toppling onto a warherd of ungors, crushing twenty of them under his bulk.

There was no time to celebrate the first blood though since as soon as the Cygor was hit the forest surged towards the fort. The earthquake and the noise of thousands of bray's raising up was deafening. The sharp crack of handguns were deafened by roar of the coming wave of flesh. Though bullets and arrows met the on coming tide, unable to miss the densely packed masses, they may as well been mosquito bites on a giant.

"Come on take the bait, come on take the bait…." Rufus spoke to himself, unheard by Rusty over the din of battle. Rusty moved to the edge of tower and took aim at the main gate way. Rufus then shouted." Yes!" Rusty could see the beastmen ungors charge through the open gate and into his clan rats. The ranks of his rats held with a phalanx of spears, in fact they killed three to one, a much greater amount than they would have had in the open field. But the ungor's kept pouring in and onto the spears to the point that they were unusable and the Skaven were forced to use their long knives.

Even as the Skaven fought with their knives to the death the cannons added their fire into the gate. A dozen clan rats were crushed under the cannon balls but over a hundred gors and ungor's were crushed when the cannon balls struck and bounced though the gates into the horde beyond. The Skaven were finally broken and overran, leaving a pile of dead 4 deep around the gates entrance. They held for five minutes.

Those first few score beastmen that made it over the wall of dead were met a fusillade of small arms fire. White fletched arrows thunked into chests and through shields, the green wisp of warpstone led a line from barrels to their targets and the crack of thunderers was like a slap that sent the beastmen to the ground. Hundreds fell under this continuous fire, most of the deaths happened in between the gate house and the first barricade. There was a new pile of dead of dead at the barricade building up and being knocked over by cannon balls which lanced into the oncoming tide behind through the gates. The mortar was also creating gaps in the densely packed beasties.

They pushed on over the barricades of dead, turning many into mush underhoof. Again they were slowed by the second barricade, then the beastmen met the chaos warriors who charged into their midst. The chaos marauders and warriors were the most aggressive, with buffs of strength and faster attack speed's via the two wizards theses warriors pushed back the beastmen from the second row of barricades. This gave time for the missile units facing the courtyard to be restocked with ammunition.

With their buff's lowering the chaos player's retracted their forces, but sent in the elf spearmen and the slaughterbrute to give some time for the spells to cool down. Others spells were used instead, bolts of pure magic or multi colored fire balls which exploded much like a white phopserus mortar rounds were flung. Yes there were casualties with the bots but they were minor in comparison to the damage dealt to the beastmen. In just the first thirty minutes of the siege the defenders had lost 300 bots to around 5,000 enemy troops.

At the thirty minute mark the enemy kept on sending in a constant stream of low level troops through the gate way, but also changed its tactics somewhat. Now the cygor's were flinging boulders into and against the castle, with their targets mostly being on the wizards though they were crushing a lot of their own bots under rock but also hitting the defenders as well. The giants and the gorgons on the otherhand were battering down the wall or crawling over it. Darg tried his best to snipe them and in fact downed another three of the colossal targets, but at the same time he had only a single bolt thrower to work with. The cannons also diverted their fire at the giants making it over the wall taking the pressure off of the gate, even though the mortar continued to fire.

With the pressure off the gate bray shamans and bestigors poured into the fortress mixed with the other troops. The shaman's cast buff's on their bot's granting them increased toughness and strength, others speed and more still wild powers. One shot an amber colored bolt at an emplacement nearly destroying it and killing a gunner in the process. Rusty was shooting and sniping the shaman's who got though as soon as he could get his jezzail loaded. The other missile armed players also tried their luck shooting at the magic users, with over a dozen killed in just a matter of minutes. The player controlled bots were pushed back to the third barricade though.

'Where is the general…. Where is the bastard.' Rufus thought as he looked at the slaughter play out below. He was scanning and looking for the big man, the beastlord who was leading this army. Not any brayshamans or wargors, he wanted to find where the big guy was so he could kill him and see about breaking his army. He needed to make an appearance soon, especially after taking out so many mobs.

The player's defenses were stretched thin even more when a giant crashed through the wooden palisade and into the battle ground between the second and third barricades. The slaughterbrute was assigned the task of killing the giant and crashed into it. The giant gripped two of the slaughtebrutes arms as it punched at the giant and started to pull on them almost like it going to tear them off. The slaughterbrute used its second set of arms pull the giant off of it's feet. The slaughterbrute then chewed at the giant's throat and then pulled the giants arms out and beat it to death with it.

At the ruined palisade Erent had set up his long beards around the breech. As a few set up a barricade the beastmen came through the narrowing breech. Erent set his barrel next to breech and with tankard in his left hand sat on it. He then drank his tankard and swung his axe at the incoming mobs from behind. The beastmen continued on to the longbeards, though most were dying from a blow to their spines from Erent's axe.

As soon as the new palisade was up the beastmen were pushing to the third defensive line. Most of the marauders and elves were dead and now it fell to the men of the empire to hold back the coming tide. Grape shot cut swaths into the oncoming hordes and then the halberdiers, spears and swords started to advance and cut into the beastmen. They pushed them half way between the defensive lines, but no further.

Rufus face light up and he pointed excitedly at the gate." There he is! There's the fucker."

Rusty shifted aim to the gate house. The boy then swore as he saw the name, his voice cracking." Are you kidding me? Morghur! We have to face the Master of Skulls!" He then took a shot at him and the bullet hit his chest, but not even a sliver of health was lost. Backing him up was scores of minotaur's.

"Right time to cut off the head of the snake! Get your rat ogres into that horde now Rusty!" He then sent messages out to Raydan and Tatianna to use their reserves and charge out of the citadel to push onto the gatehouse. He then sent additional messages to the cavalry commanders to readied at the third line of barricades for a new charge. Finally he sent one last message to Skavur, detailing a certain action to take in a couple of minutes.

" Hey cover me Rusty." Rufus said and then grabbed the rope. His gloved covered left hand protected his palms as he slid down the rope, his hammer in his right hand. When Rufus hit the ground the sea guard and the monstrous infantry were already engaged in combat with the beastmen's minotaur's. They had pushed up to the second defensive line and nearing Morghur.

Rufus ran towards the battle, drawing his revolver and saying minor battle prayers to boost his stats. He hopped and ran lightly over the hundreds upon hundreds of dead bodies, the coppery smell of blood and animal musk filling his nostrils. Morghur then just looked at the unit of Imperial halberdiers and the next moment they were withering on the ground, a dozen of them mutating into horrid spawn and turning against their living brethren.

Behind Morghur an explosion ripped apart the first line of defense and blew apart a dozen minotaur's and sent shrapnel into a score more, even Morghur suffered a heavy blow to his HP bar from the explosion, sending it to above the yellow. The ground then opened up in front of the gate house and dwarf miner's emerged from the earth, Skavur leading the way to defend the gate to stop any more minotaurs into the parade grounds. They threw dozens of explosive packs into the gate way, killing another 6 minotaurs and partially collapsing the gate.

Tatianna and Raydan then fought their way to Morghur first who was damaging them with a miasma around his body. Raydan stabbed at Morgur with his spear and was blocked with Morghur's staff. Tatianna then tried to sink her axe into his back, but the beastlord blocked the blow with his staff again.

Rufus then saw an opening and aimed his revolver at Morghur." Accusation!" He yelled activating the skill which boosted his aim to a stead line. He then started to unload at the beastlord, the blessed silver bullets impacting against its chest. The bullets were taking slivers of health of, but from the force they were still knocking him back and off balance. This allowed Tatianna to slice into his side with her axe and Raydan stabbed through the chest below the heart. Then Rufus lept and brought his hamer down on the beastlord's head, crushing in it's skull and eliminating the last of it's health.

Raydan looked at Adler." Where the fuck did you come from?" He pulled his spear from Morghur and lifted his shield.

Adler just clicked away the last strike bonus and said to him." I saw the party happening and couldn't help but join in." A minotaur then pushed Morghur away and then brought his axes up, intent on splitting Rufus into little slices. There was crack and then the smack of a bullet hitting the minotaur in the head, killing it instantly. Rufus then said under his breath." Gotta get that kid something."

He then looked at the battled he was involved with.' Enemy Minotaur's? Mostly dead but still fighting. Enemy re-enforcements? Still trying to fight through the dwarfs and some giants are till trying to knock down the walls. Over all battle status? Most of our regular infantry is dead or wrecked to the point of being useless, but we still have over ten thousand more bots to face. We need to pull back into the citadel but have to do so in an orderly way. With us in the fort then we can face down the hordes at one at a time… but then we have to deal with the giants.' Rufus thought.

Then aloud he spoke for his nearby commanders to hear." As soon as we deal with the minotaurs here, start to fight back to the third line." He then started to walk backwards loading his revolver as he did so. As soon as the revolver was reloaded he sent word to the dwarf cannon gunners to pull their gun into the citadel.

Rufus then sent word to start pulling the front line troops back, Skavur included. His soldiers fought a fighting retreat back to the citadel. The going was tough as the monsterous infantry started to fall and the sea guard were strained from holding the line. But the retreat was orderly at least and the small arms helped as they fired into the oncoming, reforming, horde.

As the parade grounds was filled up once more with the oncoming beastmen, not as aggressive as they were before but at the same they kept up the attack. With a thousand bots on the parade grounds Adler then pulled a trigger in a box in the third line. There was a flash and a Line Of powder ignited underground. The second line then exploded as much the first one did, causing much death and confusion in the enemy regiments.

"Cavalry charge!" He shouted an order. The assembled cavalrymen then charged into the enemy ranks, spears and lances lowered as the horses made their fast charge. They impacted against the horde of beastmen like a spiked sledge hammer, pushing it back further to the gate house.

" All infantry fall back to the citadel now!" Rufus shouted and sent the order via message to those that couldn't hear him. With the beastmen distracted by the cavalry the infantry made their advance to the rear, abandoning the warmachines that were outside the citadel. On the walls they barricaded the doors and prepared for future attacks. While around the citadels door a new defensive line was being made around the dwarfen cannon.

Rufus made his way inside the citadel and sent out the message for the cavalry to pull back into the citadel. As the hooves thundered back to the citadel he spoke." This is the last line, we can not fall back any further! If anything other than our cavalry tried to fight it's way through kill it!"

As the cavalry pulled back the remaining giants crossed over the wall and the ten thousand or so bots were free to flow into the parade grounds. The slaughter brute finally met it's end when two giants pummeled the beast into the ground.' The bots we can handle. The giants… I pray that our missile armed troops can bring them down before they tear down the citadel.'

Then he heard something that sent a chill down his spine. But in a good way. He heard wolves howl and looked out at the battle field.

Crawling over the walls were a dozen, hulking, wolfmen and women. These men and women were clearly not with the army of beastmen since they would of made their presence known much earlier in the battle. Their appearance ranged from slim, to stocky, to muscular. Their bodies being covered in fur and with wolf heads, but very much human otherwise as he could tell by the females with their breasts free of any bindings.

They charged across the field to the giants . They leapt at the giant's legs and with their claws started to climb up the backs of the giants, their claws digging into the flesh. They then started to tear and claw at the back of the giant's necks. The stupid creatures roared and shouted in pain, one even fell over to get the werewolves off it's back. But it was for naught, the werewolves tore at the back of the giant's necks and with their spines exposed ripped and chewed them out. The giants then fell in quick secession onto the human sized bots one by one at that point.

As soon as the wolves came though, they left. They fought their way out and away from the melee and back over the walls. Adler could feel the eyes of the players shift from the werewolves to him. He looked back ans shrugged." Hey I've done some bullshit things. But for once it's not my doing and I'm calling bull shit on that moment as well… another wave incoming!"

And so the defenders sought to hold the line. Their saviors on the other hand….?

/

A mile away the werewolves ally watched as they returned to her as she sat in the spruce. Her cat like feet swung below the branch and a staff laid in her lap. The staff was pure black with the remains of skeletalized human torso on top of it.

She smiled as she saw her allies, the Children of Ulric return to her side at the base of the tree. One of them climbed up it's side and onto her branch. The small girl extended a hand to the werewolf and pat him on the head, then ran a hand down the side of his jaw to his neck, pushing some of his long black hair out of the way." I have returned." He looked at her with bright green eyes. A golden sigil of Sigmar, much like what Rufus wore, hung around his neck.

She nodded and sighed. She had followed the advice of her comrade when he had decided to come this way. It just came over him to run this way earlier in the day. She thought it strange, but then again ever since they had found each other all those cold nights ago she had learned to trust him. He was the only person she had come to trust since leaving the south. They had shed blood, fur and even tears together. It was sad that he was an Artificial Intelligence, but she did not care in the slightest.

When they arrived at the battlefield he just asked for augment spells to be cast on his followers and to go save the defenders of hard oak. She did so and watched as her only friend left for the fight. In just the twenty minutes since he left he had now return covered in blood." Did you do well Hans?" Silica asked him, her face much like a cats now that she made the switch to beastmen.

Han's nodded." They will be able to hold to the morning light. My god's Ulric and Sigmar would not let one of such devotion fall to such an unworthy foe. Though he does stretch their patience some times." He said to her.

She smiled and then said." No, not yet I suppose." Then she turned her eyes to the siege and she wondered how much longer it would be till she returned to the south.

/

_Averheim, Capitol of Averland  
June 2 2023, 9:24PM_

The brothel was updated to modern tastes. Outside of the brothel was covered in red oil lamp lights denoting its purpose. If not the naked women on the billboard outside of the building certainly did. This brothel was guarded by a pair of ogre eunuchs with very large scimitars. They would only allow those who had permission or paid their way inside the building.

Two travelers, both fairly well dressed, entered the brothel without a glance from the ogre guards. One of the gentlemen wore an imperial uniform of an Marianburg colonel which was grey-green and had crossed tridents on his lapels. His hair was short cropped and he had grey eyes.

The other traveler wore steel chainmail with a red and yellow talbard, a blue hippogriff decorating the talbard. Hit his side was a cross hilted long sword with a shield repeating the same pattern of his talberd on his back. His face was angular and handsome, but in his light brown eyes there was something… wrong with them.

The two entered the brother proper and saw the shows going on. On most of the larger tables there were strippers dancing and removing what little clothes they had. There was also the main stage with a booty shaking retinue with 'in da club' on string instruments, which filled the entire brothel. The bar also had a stripper dancing in between the drinks on it.

The two men ignored most of the tables and instead with the general leading the way, they soon found themselves at a booth. There was Field Marshal Kirk sitting in the both with two naked whores under each arm and another under the table pleasuring him. He smirked up at the two." Kenny, Le Buff hey buddies take a seat and a girl while your at it."

The two travelers did so. Le Buff saying." Evening Treasurer-General Kirk. You wanted to talk to us about 'our business' dealings?" He absently groped the whores right tit as he spoke.

He smirked and nodded." Yes. Our dear leader Kibaou will be gearing up and looking for the 'Quest for the Sun' in a couple of weeks. As soon as he completes it he'll be the real count he'll be leading the entire state up to Altdorf."

Colonel Kenny snorted." What's so different now than before?" He asked Kirk.

Kirk smirked." Kibaou has decided instead of taking the entire Empire and destroying the Grand Temple of Sigmar, he'll instead be taking Nuln when Averland hit its ultimate negative Karma. He knows that it would e unfair for the other factions not to be on the same side of the meter when the GTS is destroyed, so he has told me to offer your two states a deal. Marienburg and Bretonnia may take Altdorf for their own until such time as they are in the same karma range."

Kenny grinned." Oh the burghers will like this offer, but there has to be some assurances of course."

Kirk nodded." Of course, does a thousand gold to each of the burghers and council members sound like a good enough assurance?"

Kenny laughed." I'll tell you next week once they are done arguing. But if it involves money then it's a provisional yes."

Le Buff then spoke." Why hasn't Kibaou offered this in the flesh and why now and not later when he has taken his place as an elector count?" He said while his whore explored his own flesh.

"Kibaou has decided to stay at the palace, he prefers his girls over the bots here. As to your second question, General Tavington convinced Kiabou to start setting in place his allies for the coming campaign. " Kirk told the Bretonnian diplomat.

Le Buff then grunted." Giles has made his position clear, he won't commit any of Bretonnia's forces to your civil war while dealing with his own."

Kirk smiled then." What does he think about leasing some soldiers to say Marianburg then? I can think of a The Dixie Boys and the Chevaliers as some troublesome groups that Bretonnia could do without for a few months? After all with some donations they could set up nicely in the swamps around the city."

Then Le Buff smiled." Giles will be more receptive to that idea a lot more than out right supporting you. Especially in case you fail."

Kirk gave a deafening loud." We have the largest army in the game, tens of thousands of green skins and soon an entire province under our official control. We're too big to fucking fail!"

/

_Hard Oak, Province of Hochland  
Just after day break._

The defenders had won. The parade grounds was covered in beastmen ten deep but rapidly dissipating in the morning sun, a lake of blood draining into the dungeon's below the castle. At the entrance of the citadel, where the dead were deepest, the students were aliened from the shortest dwarf to the tallest being Tatianna. Each of the students was covered in blood and sweat, the remains of the night long battle. Rusty was off to the side and despite not having any blood on his body he glowed a sickly green from the warp stone residue. All of the players had gained two or three levels over the course of the night in additional to several hundred gold pieces from all the loot.

Rufus emerged from beneath the citadel, clearing any more mobs in the dungeons below and now setting aside the rare items he had won down below. He took his place infront of his students, just as dirty as any of the students. His face was covered in dried blood and gun powder residue.

Rufus then spoke to students, his stance at ease." One month ago we set out on a campaign. One which was as much of the battle of the mind as it was of the body. You faced terrors, you faced anxiety and after last night you have faced certain death. Congratulations, you have all survived Military Thought and Action." He then started to take out diploma's and a medal for each of them. The medal was an brass imperial cross with a book at it's center with a small skull on top of it.

He then went to each student and gave them a diploma, then put the medal around each of their necks and finally while looking each of them in the eye gave them a firm hand shake. Rufus then took his place in front of them and spoke one last time to his students." You have passed with flying colors and I want each of you to know that I feel blessed to of served with you. May you find success in the future leading your armies to greater conquests. You are no longer students now, you are commanders in your own right. You may start your celebration now!"

At those words they all cheered and shouted in adulation. Those who wore hats ad helmets threw them up in the air, some hugged their friends and for the dwarfs they danced while locking arms. All but one of them started to walk at the gates and with their shattered units in tow marched to civilization.

Tatianna stayed back though and spoke to Rufus." So. We may of earned our piece of paper. But what did you get?"

Rufus's mouth cracked open, his smile brighter than usual because of his face being so dirty." I got myself a castle… by accident." He then opened up his menu and showed the property he owned and showed that he was now the proud owner of the citadel. A badly damaged citadel at that, which was out of the way.

She snorted." Really now? This was truly an accident?"

To that Rufus nodded." Actually for once yes. I didn't know about this quest and I sure as hell didn't know this place was the reward. But now that I own the place I plan on fixing it on up and turning it into my own… well for lack of a better word, my own plantation to work the land."

Then he grinned some more." But that is for later. Right now I plan on taking a hot bath."

Tatianna then crossed her arms and asked.' And where do you expect to take that? The plumbing here doesn't work."

At that Rufus pointed to the direction of the Wiess Hills over the nearby river." There is hot springs about a three hours ride from here. I can show you it if you want a nice long hot bath?" He then had a goofy grin on his face.

Tatianna face palmed… then she started to laugh. She couldn't help herself, after all that she had gone through with him. From the manipulation, to putting himself and others in danger then trying his best to act stupid and be funny about it… she couldn't help but laugh. " Why the hell not? I've got time to report to Reck and I'm not your student anymore."

Adler chuckled and said." Awesomsauce." He then turned to Rusty and said." Here you go kiddo." He tossed him a bag of gold coins." Have yourself a good time in Hergig, I'll see you on Monday."

Rusty picked up the bag of gold while murmuring something about Rufus getting gored by a pack of rabid tuskgors. Rufus pretended not to hear him and instead walked with skip in his step to his horse.

/

**A/N: Review button is at the bottom of the page… its wanting for you to click on it…. **

**Well folks here is the second part of the appendix. **

**Silica of the Forest: A young girl who has switched from Averland to the Beastman faction. Her body is covered in light brown fur with feline like legs, claws and cat like face with ears, she also has a tail, otherwise she appears much alike a human. She is a wizard who uses spells from the Lore of Beasts.  
Forces under her command: 40 Ungor Raiders and ten bestigors. **


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